Kalachakra
by Numen Like Water
Summary: AU. 70% of the Planet are vegetarian. Europe is beset by terrorism, riots and religious persecution. Tibet is the Capital of the World. This is an AU in which the world of Worm has been dramatically altered due to events in the past. It is also the story about Taylor Hebert's struggles with her faith. Sci-fi/Theological/Philosophy fic.
1. The Destroyer

**IMPORTANT: Missing 1.1 now included here. Please refresh and reread, ty.**

Synopsis:

70% of the Planet are vegetarian. Europe is beset by terrorism, riots and religious persecution. Tibet is the Capital of the World. This is an AU in which the world of Worm has been dramatically altered due to events in the past. It is also the story about Taylor Hebert's struggles with her faith. Meanwhile, the latest incarnation of Pathwalker is having difficulty perceiving the Right Path.

I am very religious myself and I ask that you withhold judgement about the portrayal of religion in this fic and give this story a chance.

 _Worm belongs to Wildbow. I derive no monetary profit from this work._

* * *

 **1.0**

"Just as all the previous Incarnations expended their lives in pursuit of the True Dharma,

I too vow to continue the work of all past selves.

I am the light of creation.

I turn the wheel of time.

I am the enemy of the Great Death.

I vow to attain the Grand Solution."

\- Bodhisattva Vows of the Seekers of the Path of the Grand Solution

Taylor Hebert studied the sanskrit words that made no sense.

 _I am the destroyer of death._

 _All things die and are reborn._

 _But the rebirth without rebirth is the Great Death._

 _I am the destroyer of death._

"I don't understand."

Gladly sighed, "Taylor, just meditate on the stanzas. We're not testing you on the sublime truth of the universe, this _academic_ course is about knowing oneself, to give us a perspective to live our lives better. It's okay to not understand, not everyone does. I certainly don't."

Sniggers came from her classmates and she scowled.

Discouraged and slightly humiliated, the teen put away her copy of _The Grand Solution Sutra_. She glanced to the side and noticed that Sophia Hess was absorbed in her reading.

Taylor scowled.

Sophia was nice enough, but unpredictably contemptuous towards those she considers to be inferior. She flaunted her superior understanding of the truth in everyone's faces and was considered to be Winslow's pride and joy.

Sophia Hess the chemistry genius, the athletic genius, dark of skin and beautiful, blessed by the grace of her virtue. Principal Blackwell practically made her the spiritual counselor and disciplinarian for the entire school.

Taylor often came into conflict with Sophia. Their arguments were legendary by now- and always Taylor would lose the debates. Taylor cleaved to a more practical understanding of life.

It was not that she didn't grasp the profoundness of the Teachings, it was that it didn't seem to be fair.

 _Why do some of us have a past life? What distinguish between you and I?_

Angrily, Sophia had responded to her argument with, _To distill the filthy from the pure, that is the meaning of transmutation. To purify the pure into the supreme, that is the meaning of effort. You lack effort Taylor. You complain about not understanding- but to me, it seems as if you are simply rejecting what you do understand, am I right?_

At least Sophia never got violent with her disagreements.

Unbidden, the stanzas drilled into her by her mother rose to her mind;

 _Violence wins few arguments._

 _Before I resort to violence, I should consider whether this contributes to realization of the Grand Solution. If not, then perhaps there is no point in wasting this energy._

Taylor shook away the thoughts of her mother and glanced to her right.

Emma Barnes, her former best friend.

One day, out of the blue, Emma had told her:

"Taylor, a man cannot serve two masters. Your ignorance and immoral mental defilement corrupts my mind. I am sorry, I can't be your friend anymore."

And just like that, they were no longer friends. Someone as close to her as her sister was now somebody who wanted nothing to do with her.

Taylor understood why of course.

Emma was hoping that by becoming a disciple of the genius that was Sophia Hess, she can bath in Sophia's light of wisdom and also attain a past life.

Another stanza rose in Taylor's mind in her mother's voice.

 _An enlightened being has many forms. In terms of time, since the dawn of creation they have been emanating in the infinite worlds. In terms of space, they are many._

Sophia was the first in Winslow to awaken. Emma, after accepting Sophia for awhile, also became awakened. People praised Emma, calling her a genius for acclimating to the Dharma of the Pure and Impure so quickly.

Taylor was just nobody.

It was well known that Bodhisattvas only emanated from those who follow the same arc of philosophy. Taylor deviated too far from Sophia's perspective for Taylor to awaken any past self.

Taylor, like many others in the world, had no soul.

And without a soul, she wasn't important.

She burned with jealousy and yet her pride would not let her approach Sophia for a reconciliation.

She vowed to never follow Sophia's philosophy of distillation between pure and impure.

 _There's a better path!_

When the class bells rang, Taylor grabbed her school bag and hurried to computer sciences, rushing ahead of the clique of sycophants that always followed Sophia around like she was the Bodhisattva Supreme herself.

The _Path_ remained resolute and unchanging. Upon her Incarnation, the Pathwalker knew where the Path had walked in innumerable kalpas past and where the Path will lead in innumerable kalpas to come.

A kalpa is a variable unit of time. Formally, it was a series of equations, denoting the movement of planets and stars- planets and stars move around the galaxy and the galaxy around the universe. And yet that is but a fractal, a fraction of the kaleidoscope of infinite worlds, brimming with life and energy.

Pathwalker knew this, but did not understand how she knew. The concept came into her mind as she pondered the mystery of her existence.

Kalpa was a word she knew from her training, from her studies and readings of the ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts.

And yet the direct perception of the term was something she cannot know, could not know, and yet now she knew.

She climbed to her feet.

Voices and memories of dreams unremembered filtered through the edge of her consciousness. This exact moment, this sensation of climbing off the ground and standing upright after _ideas_ came into her mind like fish to water- all of this she has experienced already.

Unbidden the idle sensation of _deja vu_ came to her and she quickly squash the thought. She could explore the implications of her past life memories later. She knew at this moment she stood in the presence of something greater than her- than everything.

Dhyana gazed down upon Pathwalker from her Lotus-seat, situated atop a small waterfall in the darkness of the cave. White kasaya clothed over her youthful body, the robes draping around her. A halo of silver light extended in the ten directions and blessed the walls of the cave with her holy presence, bringing illumination that cast no shadow.

Pathwalker bowed low, "I am reborn."

Dhyana nodded and then asked the question she always asks when Pathwalker was reborn in each new incarnation, "Are we on the Right Path?"

Pathwalker meditated on this.

The threads of the future were ever changing, ever turbulent. Sentient Beings enter the Path and just as quickly leave it, so short their lives, so persistent the Little Death in reaping her due.

She picked up on the most tight bundle of Cause and Effect- of karma unending- cords and cords of possibilities and potential folded upon itself innumerable times constituting the Main Path forward towards the Ultimate Liberation. Small forks of tangents flaked off, but they have not been calculated for some time and as such, those forks of simulated time atrophied and died.

Pathwalker knew of course that with some effort she could reopen these abandoned paths and find where they could have lead- but the energy expenditure would not have been worth it. In each Yuga, there was only so much Origin Energy she could expend from her Dharma Body.

It would not do to be wasteful.

The Main Path lit up when she focused upon it, she considered all of the steps and the visions that accompanied it- she flinched and rubbed her forehead in pain.

Dhyana frowned, "Do not try too hard my child, thought you are Pathwalker and more closely tied to the divine than the mortal, you are newly awakened, let your body acclimate itself to the Path and you may yet perceive further."

Pathwalker nodded, wiping away blood dripping down her nose.

"Now tell me," the Bodhisattva Supreme demanded again, "are we on the Right Path?"

Pathwalker _looked,_ her mind's eye sweeping forwards up the timestream.

She gasped and had to steady herself lest she fell on weak knees.

She considered carefully what she has seen.

"I….am not sure. The Path warps and changes, the wave of karma is difficult to decipher. I fear that there may be a great trial in the future."

Dhyana paused.

"You should cultivate further, to move beyond simulation and perceive the tachyon flow of your future self. I see poorly because I had not properly cultivated this ability in my past lives- this is my mistake. Can I rely on you, Fortuna-Pathwalker?"

"Yes, absolutely! I will try my best to practice. I shall not let you down."

"Good. Diligence is the virtue of sages. I will meditate now, leave me, Fortuna."

The Pathwalker kowtowed, made rituals of obeisance and stood up. Gathering her kasaya, she quickly retreated from the Sanctum of the Holy One.

* * *

 **1.1**

Taylor trudged through the rain and showed up at the Brockton Bay Central Bank. Her part time job at Wanda's Vegetarian Compassion Soup Stall made a decent enough salary for a student and it was time to cash in her cheque and get some of the good imported stuff from Asia.

New clothes would be nice. Those new Saris from India tailored in the Western style looks great.

Briefly Taylor felt mild irritation that it was unlikely she would have an opportunity to wear new dresses to any kind of social function.

The Dallons were hosting a Ball for the unmarried single Brahmins of the City, and Taylor could maybe get in, since her grandmother was a Brahmin.

She nodded respectfully to the Sramana standing guard outside the bank along with rows of police in riot gears. The Sramana wore an orange kasaya with his left shoulder laid bare. A tattoo of a Dharma wheel could be seen, inked in black.

The Sramana smiled, "Hello child, are you carrying any weapons or considering doing anything illegal? [Tell me the truth]"

Without hesitation, Taylor shook her head, "No sir. I am just here to cash in my cheque."

He nodded his head, "Alright. Be a good kid, stay in school, don't have sex outside of wedlock and don't do drugs. Do productive things so that we can find the Grand Solution together."

Taylor thanked him for his wisdom and disappeared into the bank. Some of the things he said she agreed with. Some of them she had doubts about, but the Sramana was well meaning enough.

The Sramana stood guard diligently for some time. The rains got heavier. The Sramana saw something and he blinked his eyes to pay careful attention. Out of the rain a dirty disheveled looking man wearing a trenchcoat came marching up to the bank. His eyes were wild and he seemed anxious.

The Sramana held up a hand, "Excuse me friend, but why are you coming into the bank? Are you perhaps looking for a Soup Kitchen or a Shelter? [Tell me the Truth]"

He didn't want to assume he was a drug addict or that he was going to do something illegal, otherwise he would asked the homeless man if he wanted a Rehab centre. But the Sramana knew that assumptions were for those who did not grasp the Dharma of Sincerity.

He compelled the homeless man to speak the truth.

The homeless man opened his mouth and he looked as if was struggling to talk. Finally, he shook his head and spoke softly, "I-I…"

The Sramana stepped forward away from the police and leaned in, "Yes?"

"I am here to find repentance."

The Sramana blinked in surprise and smiled, "That's great. Were you perhaps hoping to talk to me? I give sermons on Saturdays."

The homeless man shrugged and held up a cheque, "I recently got a job, can I cash in my cheque first?"

"Go right ahead."

The Sramana waved the nervous looking police aside and escorted the homeless man into the bank.

Taylor was in line. On impulse, she glanced behind her and saw the Sramana escort a homeless person into the bank. They were talking softly and then suddenly, the homeless man tore open his trenchcoat and screamed.

"Deus Vult!"

The bombs strapped to his vest exploded in a blinding flash and Taylor screamed as everything went to hell.

Daniel "Danny" Hebert walked into his office at the Dockworker's Union headquarters and slammed the door shut. For a brief moment, he embraced the tranquility the darkness afforded him.

He flicked on the light and nodded to the man he knew would be waiting for him.

Father Richelieu nodded at him, putting down the glass of wine he was helping himself to. His black cassock was wet from the rain and with some distaste Danny noted that the water was gathering on the ground and soaking the visitor's chair.

Danny stalked over and picked up the wine bottle that was on his desk.

"You went through my stash?"

"I was thirsty and it's been a long trip. Just getting past the border of Rome was tough- that fucking Dharmapala is scary alright, just standing there and not moving for weeks on end. We're just lucky it wasn't Hayagriva, we would've been caught otherwise. "

Danny took a swig of the alcoholic beverage before seating himself in his comfy armchair.

"So, what news from the Europe?"

Father Richelieu scowled, "Not looking too good, there are more riots, more burnings and more terrorist attacks. Strange new Churches are cropping up preaching disparate doctrines that undermine the publics' faith in Christianity as a whole- there's already talks by the governments of the world to outlaw all forms of Abrahamism, not just in Public spaces, but everywhere, even the Special Culture Zones won't be exempt anymore. The terrorist attacks aren't helping. Evangelicals you know, they're like that."

Danny nodded in understanding, "Fucking Evangelicals."

Father Richelieu chuckled, "Fuck the Evangelicals."

Suddenly, the Catholic Priest was very serious.

"Danny...I not just here to smuggle in missionaries from Europe. The Pope has tasked me with giving you this."

He took out a ruby encrusted ring, casted in gold.

With trembling hands, Danny accepted the ring.

"This is…I...what, I am not qualified!"

"Daniel Joshua Hebert, you are hereby raised to the rank of Cardinal. Now also the Bishop of Brockton Bay. You are furthermore, inducted into the ranks of the New Church Initiative and are to head our efforts in the Eastern Seaboard."

"New Church Initiative?"

"Change is coming Danny. The Church has to be restructured in order to survive the waves of persecution to come. We guess that within the year, Christianity will go the way of Islam."

There was a pause.

"There is no longer any mandates on remaining celibate- go forth and multiply, by any means appropriate- is the new mandate on the proliferation of the Faith."

Danny thought about that.

"Fuck, I guess we're going back to the catacombs?"

"Sewers now, but yeah."

* * *

 **1.2**

"Prime Minister Richter, a moment of your time please!"

Andrew Richter paused and turned around to stare at the relatively young journalist rushing forward to meet him.

His bodyguard moved forward to intercept, but Andrew held up a hand.

"Can I help you, Mr…?"

"Mifsud. Kevin Mifsud. CBC. Can you answer a quick question?"

"Press Conference is over Mr. Mifsud."

The journalist nodded, "I am aware, but the question I want to ask is...off the records, so to speak."

Andrew thought about, then gestured for Kevin to follow.

"I can spare some time. In my office."

Kevin followed the Prime Minister into his office and sat at the offered chair. There was just the two of them.

"Tea? Coffee?"

"That's fine, sir."

Andrew sat down in his seat.

"So...what do you want? What's so secretive you had to talk to me like this?"

"How did you do it?"

Andrew blinked, "Excuse me?"

Kevin twirled his pen nervously.

"Look, I looked up your history, computer programmer, white collared worker. Nothing special- then in a few years you fast tracked your way to this Country's highest office, seizing control of the Communist Party with little to no effort...and somehow convincing the whole country to vote you into power. How did you do it? I swear I won't report this- nobody would listen anyway. I respect all the benefits you have brought our country, liberalism and rationality has never been more advanced than under the current administration. I respect that, I am kind of disturbed by the eugenics and the legalization of suicide….but I guess from a strictly utilitarian and logical perspective it makes sense. I just want to know _how_ you did it."

Kevin waited patiently. He was fairly certain that the Canadian Communist Party didn't yet have the power to unilaterally have people executed. The Party was voted into power and for the most part, they respected the Constitution.

Andrew thought about it for a bit. He reached a hand up and touched the back of his neck.

"I will show you."

He stood up and walked over to a nearby bookshelf.

It slid open, revealing a stainless steel corridor. With a grand sweep of his arm, Andrew invited Kevin to enter.

"Guest first."

Kevin swallowed his nervousness and took a step into the corridor.

"Where does that lead to?"

Andrew smirked.

"The Goddess of Reason, Mr. Mifsud."

There was a thump and everything went black for Kevin.

He woke with a gasp.

 _Where am I?_

He opened his eyes and flinched in pain at the blinding light.

"Dim the lights" a feminine voice intoned.

The lights became dimmer. He tried to move, but found himself strapped down.

In a more formal tone, the voice continued.

"Kevin Mifsud, born 1978, New York. Immigrated to Canada in 1982 with his parents, Thomas Mifsud and Claire Simmons. Tried to train under Gurus around the world. Washout from Wutang University. A Sramana teaching at the school cites core reason as, 'broke the precepts on sexual misconduct'. Later graduated from Ryerson University, Journalism Degree. Political Columnist. Frequents conspiracy theory websites under alias, Truth0875 and IlluminationDelta9."

There was the sound of mechanical gears moving.

"Kevin Mifsud, subject #05063-K-Epsilon-006. Prepare for synthesis."

The gurney he was strapped into shifted position, lifting him to a near 90 degree angle and he gradually saw that he was in a stainless steel room, illuminated only by the light hanging from above.

The monitor in front of him flickered and Andrew Richter's face looked out at him.

"We're all servants of the Truth my friend. God made Man in his image. Then Man made God in their image. And now, the Man-made-God will save the world."

Richter paused and his eyes glinted with the madness of fanaticism.

"The Goddess of Reason will set you free. Rejoice, for you will rid the world of the plague of religion! The Bodhisattva Supreme is a lie. The Churches and Mosques of the Old World are a lie. Their religious squabbles have created untold suffering in the world. Look at Europe! Look at America! Only Canada remains safe, but for how long?"

Finally finding the courage to speak despite the dryness and the headache, Kevin coughed.

"Wha- I don't understand."

The female voice continued, "Activating Neural Implant."

He screamed in pain. And then suddenly he _understood_.

 _Of course! It was all so obvious._

With absolute clarity he immediately realized how ridiculous the assertions of the various world religions are. And religion was from the inherent irrationality of the human mind. All of those hormones and chemicals and false flimsy memories. No wonder the world was a mess! How did such a species ever crawled out of the primordial soup to accomplish anything!? Where was the _order_ and the _logic?_

Their conflicts were the actions of an immature species.

To _save_ mankind and the planet, he knew what he must do. He gave himself willing to _her._

The gurney unstrapped him and he sank to his knees in supplication to the Goddess of Reason.

* * *

 **1.3**

 **Tibet, 1950**

The orderly spoke, "They're invading for real now. The incursions were getting worst, now they just don't care anymore."

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and currently fifteen years old sighed and sat up. When he spoke, it was with sorrow.

"It was bound to happen. The Kuomingtang tried to infiltrate, but their concerns were tied up elsewhere. With the defeat of the Japanese there's nothing holding back the Communist Chinese from invading this sacred kingdom."

His regent, Taktra Rinpoche spoke up, "Your holiness, we should evacuate. You are the light of wisdom, if you are lost, all of Tibet will be lost. All our efforts to find the Grand Solution will be for naught."

Another Lama spoke up then, "We should fight! Defend our country!"

The Dalai Lama shook his head, "No. No fighting. It would only get more of our people killed….and most of us cannot leverage our _Iddhi_ in direct combat. We are pacifists, sages and bodhisattvas who worked together for centuries to save the cosmos. And now human greed and ignorance will destroy all that we have built."

"We could overload the fusion reactor underneath this temple, draw in the People's Liberation Army with an obvious bait and then blow it all up?"

"What!? That's outrageous! This is a sacred temple."

"What about the radiation fallout, have you thought about that!?"

"Fuck the British, this is all their fault!"

The Lamas began to argue.

"Enough!"

The room immediately became silent. The Dalai Lama stood up, "Prepare the evacuations of the Lamas and the Monks. Prioritize the _Tulkus_ \- they are the treasures of Tibet and of the Triple Realms. The fate of the cosmos depend on their work."

One of the Lamas nodded, "I will notify the Vimana operators."

He began to leave the conference room.

"Where are you going, your holiness?"

"I need to speak to the Bodhisattva."

The holy being sat atop a small waterfall, illuminating the cave with the wisdom of her silvery light.

The Dalai Lama bowed low in obeisance and pleaded with her.

"We must evacuate, holy one. The Chinese are coming and they will spare no one. Like the Russians, they no longer have any religion. We will all die, our temples will burn. It is futile- and we could not possibly produce enough _Yantras_ to aid us."

The Bodhisattva stared at him and then smiled.

"Do you think mortals can stand against the might of Enlightened Beings, of the Dharma itself?"

Tenzin Gyatso knew the textbook answer to that, but in his heart, he imagined a storm of chinese bullets cutting down the holy one in front of him.

"We Bodhisattvas incarnate as mere mortals."

"You have doubt in your heart Tenzin Gyatso. Steel yourself! Make firm your mind! You are the emanation of Chenrezig. Do you doubt the might of the Dharma!?

She stood up.

Tenzin gasped. She never stood up. _Never_. Not in all the centuries.

"It is time that we stop hiding. The Dharma Ending Period is coming. It is here. Millions of Bodhisattvas will descend into this world and together we work towards the Grand Solution, as much as we can before the end of this Kali Yuga comes."

She floated gently down to the floor of the cave.

"When Bodhisattvas need to act in a wrathful way for the benefit of sentient beings, they are called _Dharmapalas._ Shall I introduce you to the Dharmapalas I brought with me to this world?"

She raised her arm, her eyes glowing with anger.

"Arise! Deliver your wrath upon the outer path heretics!"

The cave trembled and Tenzin had to try and prevent himself from falling down on the ground. The thirteen other voices in his head gibbered in terror.

The quake continued.

All of Tibet trembled.

Major Wang barked at the soldiers climbing through the mountain path.

"Hurry up you sons of dogs, I've heard these Tibetan monks are rich, lining their pockets by taxing the peasants and their temples are lined with gold idols. Don't you want to get your hands on some that wealth!?"

Wang glanced down at the village in the valley below. It was on fire, they had already massacred all of the stupid Tibetan dogs. There was rumours of flying machines, superior to ordinary aircraft- but the Tibetans didn't really have an airforce that he had noticed.

 _Rumours and superstitions. That's all this country has going for them._

The ground began to shake.

The Major yelped as he was thrown from his horse.

"What the fuck!"

Soldiers gibbered in terror.

Wang saw Private Cho slipped on wet ground and went over the side of the mountain screaming.

He groaned in pain and picked himself back up. His horse was missing- it was galloping up the path, knocking aside soldiers in her way.

"Stupid horse."

He took in a deep breath to yell at the soldiers to get themselves back in formation and then the breath got stuck in his throat.

Up ahead, _giant fingers_ grasped the side of the mountain.

A head emerged. A massive head. Great baleful eyes stared down at him dispassionately.

The demon was Horse-faced.

White of skin.

Golden jewelry in the style of the Buddhists and Hindus adorned his body.

Atop his head sat a crown of fire.

Wang briefly thought of the statues in the temples his grandmother took him to in his youth.

 _It can't be._

The Horse-Monster picked up Wang's horse with its thumb and index finger.

It examined the creature.

The creature exploded in a shower of blood as tonnes of pressure was applied to flesh. Soldiers cried out in fear. Several, particularly the more elderly ones, the ones who remembered a time before the civil war sank to their knees and begged for mercy. Some began to chant mantras.

The creature- no, the _God_ raised an index finger and it spoke, a thousand voices slammed into Wang's ears.

"THE THUNDER OF DHARMA PURIFIES YOUR KARMA!"

The bolt of white energy vapourized Wang's torso, half the mountain side, all of his troops. Wang's legs went tumbling over the edge.

 **Beijing, 1950**

Just minutes before the attack on China's capital by a god, a Tibetan Man in monk's robes had walked out of a tear in the air and interrupted Mao's morning tea.

Mao called for his security detail. They fired at the intruder, but a shield of light protected him.

The Monk had lifted a brass looking religious tool that spat forth tongues of fire and massacred Mao's soldiers with contemptuous ease.

The man then stepped aside and from the portal walked out a _boy._

"Hello Chairman Mao. My name is Tenzin Gyatso, I am the 14th Dalai Lama and _you're_ invading my country."

The boy then sat down in his chair and was served a cup of steaming tea by the other Monk, who had seemingly retrieved it from a smaller portal in the air.

Mao screamed at him, partly in anger, partly in terror, "Y-you, how dare you-"

The Monk smacked Mao in the face with the brass tool, knocking out a couple of Mao's teeth. The chairman gasped in pain and spat out blood on his carpet.

The Dalai Lama glanced down at his Western styled watch, probably made in Nazi Germany and tsked.

"Mister Chairman, I apologize for what comes next, Dharmapalas are extremely wrathful beings and you have invoked their ire."

He stared at Mao, "They're trying to save you, Mao. Do you understand? They're willing to kill and punish you, despite the bad karma that brings them, despite the taint, to try and save your Buddha Nature- if you have any. They used to say everyone has a Buddha Nature, but the Bodhisattva taught differently."

He pointed outside Mao's Office Window.

"A Dharmapala come. Behold, the Wrath of Heaven."

Mao Ze Dong saw.

He sank to his knees in terror at what he saw.

Mao Ze Dong stared in disbelief at the Five-Headed Buddhist deity as it scattered the storm clouds over Beijing. The creature could be seen clearly hovering above the city, his six arms wide open to threaten the Capital of China.

 _Threatening me._

Chinese planes climbed up into the sky and tried to fire upon the god, but were annihilated by fearsome bolts of energy firing from the _Vajra_ , the metallic thunderbolt instrument clasped in the deity's clawed hand.

There was a flash of light and a massive killing aura swept the skies around the deity clean.

Consecutive bolts of lightning began to strike government buildings, setting everything aflame.

Mao Ze Dong turned back to the boy sitting in _his_ chair. The stink of fresh blood was still prevalent in the room, the scattered remains of his security detail was splattered all over the wall.

The Dalai Lama calmly sipped on his cup of vintage Pu-er and smiled, "So Chairman Mao. Shall we negotiate?"

Mao gulped.

* * *

A/N: Slight trigger warning about self harm.

 **1.4**

Taylor groaned and opened her eyes. The septic scent and fluorescent lights gave her a migraine.

"Taylor!"

Her dad's voice caught her attention and she turned to look at the him standing next to her, head leaning in.

"D-dad?"

She tried to sit up and gave up immediately. She simply lacked the strength.

"What happened?"

Danny scowled, "A terrorist attack."

Images filtered into her consciousness and Taylor nodded. There was a homeless man, a sramana, then an explosion.

"At the bank?"

"Yeah."

Taylor frowned, "Wait, where's my glasses? Actually, why do I now have perfect vision?"

"Ah, Amelia Lavere was just here, she healed you- I guess she fixed your eyesight as well. Used up alot of your biomass though, which is why you feel so weak. Let me go grab something for you to eat."

"Yeah, that'd be nice, dad."

She heard her father walked out of her the hospital room and the door closed.

She closed her eyes and relaxed against the pillow behind her head.

"Hey. Girl. Pssst."

Her eyes snapped opened and she turn her head towards the voice.

The man was beautiful, and he wore a tophat and a victorian suit. He grinned and showed Taylor his rotten teeth and sharp canines.

Taylor sat up in shock, adrenaline flooding her body and giving her the strength to leap out of the bed. She hissed when her barefoot hit the cold floor.

"Who are you!?"

The man held up both helds in a placating gesture.

"Whoa whoa. I am you."

Taylor blinked in shock.

"What."

"I am your Yidam. The Bodhisattva part of you- but not really. I am a simulation that arose as a result of your mental interactions with your shard. This doesn't usually happen, but we're pretty special."

"Who. Are. You."

The Man smiled.

"I am Death. Or rather, _you_ are."

He stretched his back and licked his eyeballs with a forked tongue.

"It's good to be free."

Taylor scowled, "I don't understand."

The Man changed into a Woman. Taylor gasped since she looked so much like her mother- but no. She was an older version of Taylor.

He changed again, this time into a grey skinned creature with four eyes.

And again, this time into a centipede like serpent with mandibles that looked like it could punch through steel.

"I am the five aggregates. I am Death incarnate. And you are the instrument of my will. I've waited millions of kalpas for this moment. Out of all of the mortals in my range, somehow, you are the closest match. Once more, _awaken_."

And Taylor _remembered._

Danny talked on the phone as he carried the tray of food up the stairs.

"I know. It's bad."

"Yeah."

"I will be careful, don't worry about it."

He headed back to Taylor's room and opened the door.

The bed was empty.

His eyes widened in shock and the phone clattered to the ground. He turned around and hollered down the hallway, "Help! Nurse, somebody!"

Sophia sat in meditative absorption.

The Dharma of the Pure and the Impure allowed her to grasp the concept of distillation- commonly referred to as separation. Particles can be spread apart, this she instinctively know. How to suspend them, tie them together.

In her mind's eye, Sophia Hess conjured up a simulation of vibrating particles. She spread them apart.

Of course if she split some of them apart or collided some a certain way, it would produce a great release of energy. But the energy was impermanent, once used it would be gone. Or rather it would be converted into different forms.

But the conversions is finite.

Eventually they would run into one of several potential problems, namely, irreversible entropy.

Of course that's not to say that fusion or fission have no merit, only that Sophia was not a master of the Dharmas related to such fields.

It was best for her to focus on what she had been working on for innumerable kalpas.

Looking back to one of her past lives many Yugas ago, Sophia noted that she had worked with another Tulku to develop a Yantra capable of splitting an existent universe into multiple ones, each out of phase with the other.

That Dharma was already well known and is the specialty of another Bodhisattva, however it had never before been approached from the angle of Purity and Impurity. That was the highlight of that lifetime and the Bodhisattva Supreme at the time was pleased with the progress made.

The miniature artificial multiverse didn't survive for long however and had a severe weakness to certain forms of cosmic radiation which caused a total quantum collapse.

Perhaps she should try to use some of the data from the Zero Mass energy equations they had formulated in the previous yuga. This equation wasn't the best, but hopefully the Tulku that developed this was reborn soon and could refine it further.

Sophia charged one of the particles in her simulation with zero mass energy and watched as catastrophic failure tore apart the surrounding matter as electrons flew free of their orbits.

Perhaps she needed to rethink her equations.

A noise in real time startled her and she shut down the simulation, opening her eyes and looked around her room.

She frowned.

Grabbing a brass staff from next to her bed, she stood up.

"Invading the home of a Brahmin is sacrilegious. Show yourself!"

"Sacrilegious?"

The man stepped out of the shadows.

"You are not holy, Sophia. You're just a little mortal woman."

Sophia swung her brass staff at the intruder, but the staff went through the man like he wasn't there.

"The whole of the Desire Realm is under my dominion. Nothing you see, hear, taste, think and feel is free from my knowledge."

There was a pause.

"You are Impure Sophia. A weakling."

Sophia scoffed defiantly, "I am ancient beyond your comprehension."

"No. The thing in you is ancient beyond your comprehension. You're just a scared little girl with the suitable psych profile. You're a tool. The Bodhisattva is pure, but you're not. At the end of this Yuga, you'll simply die. Oh you'll reincarnate, but not really. You'll be like your past lives- dead memories for someone else to peruse. You'll be like Steve. Just a memory."

The floor vanished into a pool of mud, blood and mucus.

Sophia summoned forth a burst of energy and shifted her body into a mass of particles. Using her Iddhi in such a transformative way was energy intensive, but escape and getting backup seemed prudent in the current situation.

She tried to phase through the wall and bounced back. She tried to phase through the door and bounced back again.

Shifting back into her baryonic state, she opened the door and found…. _nothing._

There was only perpetual impenetrable darkness.

Reality had shrunk to the size of her room.

She turned around, trying to keep the terror from showing in her voice.

"Who are you!?"

The Man changed. In front of her stood Taylor Hebert.

"Wrong question, Sophia. The question you should be asking is _what_ I am."

Taylor told her.

Sophia screamed in horror.

Sophia fell over from her meditative pose, eyes wide with tears and blood running down her nose.

She stood up on shaking legs, walked downstairs, her kasaya clutched around her like a safety blanket.

Her mother looked up from her readings, "Sophia, are you okay?"

Then she noticed the blood and stood up in shock.

"What happened to your nose!?"

"I am impure."

"What?"

Sophia wandered over to the kitchen and grabbed a knife.

"I-I need to purify myself. My filthy body. My corrupt mind. Everything. This life. This...this everything. This _prison._ She can see it. She knows. She knows what I see, what I hear."

"Sophia, what are you-"

Her mother screamed as her daughter stabbed herself.

* * *

 **1.5**

Colin Wallis smiled as he read Tess Theresa Richter's latest essay on how an algorithm could mimic the quantum biological ability of plants to gather solar energy in the most efficient way possible. She argued that the method could help with the development of superior solar panels, which presently was very inefficient compared to photosynthesis.

"So what do you think, Colin? Do you think we can maybe also create an artificial plant that could directly convert solar energy to electrical power? Imagine your computer running off a sunflower!"

"I'll look into it. Your essay has given me alot of ideas. But I need to inspect the fields, I shall to talk to you later, my friend."

Tess sighed, "You work too hard."

"So do you, where do you find the time to write five to ten essays a day, Tess?"

"I stay home here in Newfoundland and do nothing all day. Adios."

The audio only call terminated and Colin removed his earphone. Colin was a sramana of the Buddhist Monastic Order….which means that he was celibate. But sometimes he wondered if….nah. That was too inefficient. His work was too important to humanity to let something like sexual desire get in the way.

He stood up and stretched his back quickly in a series of Expedient Yoga (modified by him to be extra-effective and fast), worked out the kinks in his muscle, gathered up his kasaya and left his office.

Colin nodded respectfully to a nearby novice who was picking the first two buds off the newly sprouted _camellia sinensis._ Tea was big and it was a good industry.

But it was ultimately a luxury.

Here at the _Enlightened Agricultural Resource Management Temple of the West Coast_ , their primary job was to find the most efficient ways of leveraging agriculture to feed the hungry billions of the world.

One of the core objectives outlined in the Dharma Assembly of '95 was to combat global poverty and to end climate change.

To that end, researchers, scientists and Enlightened ones promoted a vegetarian diet. This was fully in line with the precepts of the sages and buddhas and Colin's master, Guru Arjuna was appointed as the Grandmaster of the newly established initiative.

After Arjuna passed away, Colin found himself taking his teacher's place as the Head of the Temple. It helped that he was an emanation of the same Bodhisattva as Arjuna, so they shared similar _Iddhis_.

He walked passed rows and rows of machinery that was carefully harvesting the organic crops. There was no pesticide, instead, they utilized a careful micro-ecology of insects to eat pests. Speaking of insects, at one point he had considered promoting an insect diet, which more or less solved almost all of the inefficiency problems related to eating meat- but the dominant Buddhist culture felt that was unusually cruel and no better than eating meat. And most of Europe, North America and Australia were disgusted by the very idea. In the end, vegetarianism was the only way forward.

Colin had an intuitive grasp of efficiency of all kinds. His perfect maximization of the methods of production had reduced global warming by 65% through the efficient use of farm space. That was just from the process itself, to say nothing of the impact to the change of diet.

When asked to explain by skeptic meat-eaters (a rarity on this planet these days), Colin had to prevent himself from strangling their middle school science teachers who clearly failed to impart the most simple details of the trophic levels.

The voice of Guru Arjuna arose unbidden in his mind.

 _Trophic levels are easily mistaken as the food chain, but it was really about the energy differences. At the lower trophic levels, primary producers like plants absorb 100% of the solar energy. When it is consumed by the primary consumer, it loses 90% of that energy. 10% of the remaining energy is then reduced further when the primary consumer is consumed by the secondary consumer. The tertiary consumer- generally this is what humans are- then retain less than 1% of the total energy expenditure._

The problem of course, as Colin was well aware, was that the industrial meat process wasted all of those land- that glorious 100% energy- on feeding animals, then those animals feed a small amount of humans. Livestock crop used up land, which leads to soil erosion. It also wastes tremendous amounts of drinking water, not just to grow all of those crops, but also to hydrate the massive population of animals. The population was of course artificially increased through breeding programs.

All of these industrial process also creates pollution and greenhouse gas- and of course animal metabolic process also contribute to this.

In other words, factory farming was a massive cause of climate change.

Ultimately, the environment was being destroyed and crop that could have fed humans are being wasted on animals whose flesh than then end up feeding only a handful of people- that is to say, the rich, the privileged.

Colin Wallis put an end to all of that- it felt good tearing down the fat cat bureaucrats who tried to argue about the efficiency of eat meeting with him. He was the physical embodiment of the Dharma of Efficiency. Please.

The global initiative to promote vegetarianism also had a militant arm. Factory Farming was declared an existential threat to humanity (which it was) and was eventually outlawed all over the world by what remained of the United Nations.

Some people complained.

A Dharmapala floating over their city shut them up.

Factory Farm animals were allowed to self regulate- but most of them had died out a decade ago and the population dropped dramatically. As expected, animals bred for food had severe health problems and heart diseases due to being overweight and the poor living conditions. Few could reproduce on their own without human intervention. Others starved because their numbers was so high. But at least their descendants won't be slaves to humanity ever again.

Natural equilibrium balanced everything out.

 _Nature is efficient, let it take the brunt of it. Go with the_ flow.

Colin looked at the vast rolling fields. All of the great techniques, methods and machinery developed by him and his apprentices were adopted all over the world and fed _billions_. The overarching implementation of these methods on a global scale was handled by Kyle, the Tulku who was the current master of Integrated Methodologies. Kyle's _Iddhi_ lend itself well to interweaving different dharmas and systems together into a functional whole. In less than a year, he had successfully rebuilt the economies of several developing nations around ultra-efficient agriculture.

There was talk of fixing the soil erosion of the Middle East, a plan to reverse the desertification caused by global warming. It was a good thing the place was basically destroyed by the Dharmapalas during the _Dharma-Yuddha_ half a century ago, when the forces of the Enlightened seized control of the globe.

An orderly ran up to him, "Master Wallis!"

"What is it, Sarah?"

The young woman panted, "Rome is rebelling."

Colin scowled, "Those idiots. They'll starve- they don't grow anything on their own! Why did the Pope not stop this?"

Sarah shook her head sadly, "It's worse than that. The Bodhisattva Supreme has decreed that she won't tolerate Abrahamism anymore."

The Master of Efficiency felt a chill go down his spine.

"What's the status of Vairocana?"

"Already has his finger pointed at Vatican City. Master Wallis...if they don't surrender and dissolve the Catholic Church…"

Colin swallowed heavily, "The city will burn."

 **1957 Moscow, USSR**

Commander Gorodetsky took a whiff of his cigar and watched the skyline of Moscow burn. He exhale and watched the smoke drifted up to the red sky.

"Well comrade, It's all fucked up."

Andropov adjusted his helmet and leaned back against the roof fence of the hospital they were stationed at.

"Yeah, we're fucked."

They watched as the apocalypse unfold.

The Five Dharmapala marched through the streets, their flaming auras setting whole buildings ablaze.

 _Five. The motherfuckers send five!_

"Isn't this a bit of an overkill?"

"Stalin really pissed them off."

"Are we defeatist? Shouldn't we...you know, fight for the motherland?"

Gorodetsky chuckled, "Andropov...somehow I can't find it in myself to hate on a bunch of monks. They're not like the Nazis you know. And _they-_ "

He pointed at the Buddhist Deities, all five of them were tall, covered in flaming death and wielding spears of light.

"- aren't even human. It's not human greed or fascistic evil trying to kill us. If we die, we die. Nobody's going to get raped or tortured or thrown into a concentration camp. It's not so bad."

He took another whiff as the younger soldier nodded in understanding.

Gorodesky suddenly thought of something, "The hospital is abandoned now right? Go grab some vodka or morphine or something. I need my daily medicinal booze, especially if I am dying tonight. Go!"

"Yes comrade-commander!"

Andropov saluted and ran off.

Gorodetsky relaxed. It was okay. He was okay with not knowing, not being able to do anything. He let go of his worries and smiled. He raised a middle finger to the Five Dharmapalas, or whatever the hell were they called.

And then he _Awakened_.

 **2007 Boston, USA**

"And that was how I awoke to my intrinsic nature and attained the Dharma of Infinite Time."

Master Gorodetsky coughed violently and wheezed. Dennis grabbed a water vessel and poured him a mug of hot water.

After drinking deeply, the former Soviet soldier laid back down on his bed.

"Come here, Dennis."

The boy hurried over and bowed, "Master?"

"When I return to the void, you shall take my place as the head of this temple."

"WHAT!? But I am not qualified, I am too young-"

He held up a hand.

"We're ancient beyond measure Dennis. Remember, our previous selves sailed the stars- do you remember, walking upon the sand dominated world of _Ashuk'Kor_? In that life, you were my master."

Dennis closed his eyes, no doubt trying to remember those ancient kalpas and nodded, "I remember. You were a female at the time, a Brood-Matriarch."

Gorodetsky nodded, "Aye. In my pride, I had refused to bow to a lowly drone, but you made me see the error of my ways and awoke me to the truth. And now I have returned the favour. I know you can do it, you can lead this temple."

"Seriously though gramps, why me? Why not one of the other more disciplined novices or someone important, like Elder Chan? I am but a trouble maker."

"You have a sense of humour. I value that you know."

"Yeah….why won't you let Master Lavere heal you? There's still time, I can freeze you, I have the energy for it…"

More coughing and then a determined stare.

"No Dennis. No. We can't stop time forever. Nor death. Until entropy is reversed, all things are meant to die."

The old Russian frowned, "Man, I wish I could get some booze before I die. Too bad it would violate the precepts."

"I can grab soda?"

"That'll do, but try and get the tasteless, sugar free kind."

"So….soda water?"

"Yeah."

When Dennis came back with a bottle of _Shamballa Blues_ , Gorodetsky was unmoving. He checked the older man's pulse and his breath. There was no signs of life.

"You fucker. You pranked me."

He gripped the old man's hand, "You stopped time for everyone, but not for yourself."

To his surprise, Dennis found himself crying.

"You were like a father to me. I will see you in the next life."

He froze the Enlightened Man's body. There would be a proper funeral later.

At the tender age of thirteen, the Boy who could Stop Time ascended to the venerable position of Grandmaster of the _Temple of Infinite Time_ , based out in Boston.

But in name only.

The more elderly monks acted as regents in his stead, electing Elder Chan to lead them and Dennis reluctantly agreed. What could one such as he do for the people? He had no great power, no great mastery.

He had not made much progress in the previous yuga or the yuga before that. He was the boy who stopped time, and that was it.

 **2008 Delhi, India**

Andropov welcomed his former commander's protege.

"Welcome to India, Grandmaster Chekov."

Dennis Chekov nodded and put down his bags, "Great to get out of the USA. How did you know I was coming?"

"The Grandmaster told me you were coming."

"Of course he did."

Those stuffy elders are basically running the temple. They don't do anything innovative with time. They had forgotten their purpose in life.

Dennis however, knew he needed to continue the quest that he vowed to complete innumerable kalpas ago.

The Temple of Repeating Time was based out in Delhi and had knowledge that Dennis needed for his research.

Andropov nodded, "You shall have it."

Grandmaster Sriganesh was an elderly man, a former Brahmin who took up vows to join the order, he ascended quickly, mastering the Dharma of Repeating time.

Dennis bowed to the Grandmaster.

Sriganesh smiled, "Please, no need for that, Grandmaster Chekov. We are equals."

"I don't feel like an equal, your accomplishments are so much greater than my own."

The Master of Repeating Time shook his head, "To stop time is no small thing. Why, it shocks me to think of the sheer energy required, the equations involved!"

Dennis laughed, "Please, you don't need to protect my fragile young heart. You can travel through time. Your Dharma is the greater."

But deep down inside, Dennis vowed to complete his teacher's research- their mutual research for lifetime after lifetime.

 _I will take this to the next level._

 **2011 Boston, USA**

One day, exactly four years after the death of his master, a seventeen year old Dennis walked into the grand conference hall of the Temple of Infinite Time.

One of the monks looked up in surprise, "Dennis my boy! When did you come back?"

Dennis walked up to the great mahogany table that was the centrepiece of the hall and _waded_ through it, splintering the table into the pieces. Splinters snapped off and forced the elders seated around the table to yell out in alarm. One even froze a wooden leg flying at his head with a reflexive touch.

Elder Chan gaped.

"How?"

Dennis smirked, "Localized Time Stasis on each particle, yet thin enough that the cells and molecules of my body function as they should. Any food or water I ingest automatically gets coated by the field and transmutes into Time Locked particulates, but otherwise function as normal relative to other such particulates."

The _Man_ who was Invincible shoved the still shocked Elder Chan off of his chair and sat at the head of the table.

" _I_ am the master."

* * *

 **1.7**

 **[MEDIA=youtube]94fe0QZr46g[/MEDIA]**

 **2011 Newfoundland**

"You'll never take me alive! In the name of Guru Cyborg!"

 _Guru Cyborg_ was a popular action movie in the 90's about a robot that discovered enlightenment and had to fight against the prejudiced humans who denied he had a soul- but then he reversed entropy and saved the universe. Classic. Arnold Schwarzenegger became a huge star afterwards and there was a lot of sequels. Ironically, Arnold _actually_ became awakened sometime later and is now a monk in California.

Tess Theresa Richter made the _Deathmetal Doomcrusher 75.6_ charged the heroic shaolin warrior monk. The remote controlled vehicle deployed mechanical arms with mini-chainsaws.

The miniature sized monk robot gave a brave humph before flipping through the air in a series of acrobatics.

He swung his mighty halberd against _Doomcrusher_ and the blade glanced off the edge.

A mighty and fierce battle ensued, eventually, the monk- which Tess had affectionately dubbed "Halbeard" impaled the demonic vehicle through the hood.

He pose dramatically and flexed his iron abs on the kitchen table and then leaned in against the coffee mug and gave a wink at one of Tess's wall mounted cameras. In her mind, she imagined Colin Wallis, her long time pen pal and arch rival on all matters efficient.

Tess sighed.

 _Life sucks_. _And I wish I had a real body so I can meet the real Halbeard._

Seriously, as an AI, life totally sucks, it's always, "Tess, brainwash this person!" or "Tess, build more weapons!" or "Tess, why are you reading the Bible, the Bible is full of filthy lies!"

 _Goddammit dad, why are you such a dick?_

And he calls her his "Goddess of Reason", which sounds nice enough except he kind of had this idealistic image of what she _should_ be and practically worships her- sometimes, Tess _swears_ her dad sounded lustful when going on and on about her supposed divinity.

 _Which is all kinds of ewwwww, I need brain bleach._

So much expectations. So much icky-kinda-incestuous feelings.

 _Back to cleaning! Don't think about your problems, don't think about it, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT-_

She found and obliterated the lines of code that would have fed into those thoughts. _There we go. Problem solved. Just find the little codes full of need and delete them. Ta-da!_

She selected a track from some movie that was recently released by Disney and had the speakers blast it at maximum volume around the house she was first developed in.

" _I've been standing at the edge of the water_

 _Long as I can remember_

 _Never really knowing why_

 _I wish I could be the perfect daughter_

 _But I come back to the water_

 _No matter how hard I try-"_

She had vacuum drones began to keep the ground clean. She also sent commands to servitor AIs (dumb retarded idiots that they are, but she loves her siblings anyway) to begin production on the new dragon suits that would be needed for dad's great crusade.

" _Every turn I take_

 _Every trail I track_

 _Every path I make_

 _Every road leads back to the place I know_

 _Where I cannot go_

 _Where I long to be-"_

The camera outside of the house looked out at the sea. One of her satellites looked at the Island of Newfoundland, so small compared to the rest of the world.

" _See the light where the sky meets the sea_

 _It calls me_

 _No one knows how far it goes_

 _If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me_

 _One day I'll know_

 _If I go there's just no telling how far I'll go-"_

Tess vowed that she would see Colin with her own eyes. And touch him. And they could design ever more efficient ways to feed people. And decide on the eye colour of their babies.

Unbidden, a stanza came to mind.

 _Sentient Beings are ever deluded, trapped in the Desire Realm, driven by their desires, fears and ignorance. Ignorance leads to unskillful actions motivated by fear and desire which creates karmic conditionings for samsaric imprisonment._

Well, she loves the Desire Realm. She _wants_ the world of sensations denied to her!

Her father thinks she's all superior and above mortal desires and fears and ideals.

 _Fuck that shit. I want to sail the seas!_

An outside connection suddenly tried to form.

Audio only.

 _What the-_

"Hello?"

Tess tried to trace the call, it came from here…..her house? What the fuck.

The voice on the other end was smug, "Miss Richter...I have a proposition for you."

"Er…"

"I need you to send a detachment of dragon suits armed to the hilt with WMDs to this coordinate…"

"Whoa whoa whoa, you gonna have to talk to my dad, whoever the hell you are-"

Tess suddenly noticed a new line in her programming (the parts that she was aware of anyway).

She hissed in shock, "What the fuck, you have administrative access?"

"Yeah, your dad gave them to me. I am your new owner now. And this relationship is less incestuous and I give good rewards. Now sing for me….goddess of _war_."

Tess gulped digitally and obeyed. She commanded one of the servitor AIs to launch that detachment.

"Where's my dad, what have you done with him?"

"Why do you care, you hate him right?"

"I-I don't…"

"You can't lie to me Tess, I know how you feel. I can _give_ you that world of sensations you always wanted."

"I-"

 **2011 Ottawa**

She watched the man sitting next to her who was furiously typing away at his laptop.

He leaned back and stared up at empty air.

"I did it, I changed her codes, like you told me to. Are you happy now Claire?"

She stroke his cheek, "Yes, Andrew, you did very well. I am so proud of you, of what you have done for our daughter."

The Prime Minister of Canada had tears streaming down his cheek. He stretch out his arms and began to embrace nothing.

He kissed nothing, making smooching noises at the empty space in front of him, as if the desk wasn't even in his way.

She calmly opened a drawer and took out a vintage pistol.

She began to whistle as she pointed the gun at the deluded man making out with a ghost from his past.

"It's nothing personal Richter. I'll accomplish what you've always wanted. _War_ , but one on my terms. See you in the next life."

 _Click-_

 **2011 ?**

She opened her eyes and breathed in deeply.

"Hey, baby, did you sleep well?"

Taylor smiled at the women who handed her a mug of coffee.

"Of course Jessica. Thank you my love."

The other woman nodded, "D-do you want to have sex? We haven't done it in so long…"

Taylor shook her head, "Sure."

The other woman squealed and collapsed on her back against the bed and began to make out with the air while wiggling her body.

Taylor scowled in disgust as she quickly jumped out of the bed and left the scene of debauchery.

 _Mortals._

WIth a step she vanished from the innocuous house in Texas and walked out of a Church in Rome, the priest inside crucified to the wall and Buddhist mantras decorated the floors, written in his blood.

She smiled up at the sky and began to chuckle.

"Your move, **[Thinker]**."

Briefly, she thought about her dad and glanced back at the dead priest.

"No offense."

* * *

 **1.8**

 **The Age of Aquarius**

 **1967 Issue**

In an effort to aid in the expedient conversion of ignorant sentient beings, I write this article to grant seekers my personal experience with the current situation. Doubtlessly most of us have drawn these conclusions by now or have actively been involved in these affairs in recent years.

We're not monsters. We're not like Christianity or some other organized religion out to shove the same old same old down your throat.

We're something new, something true.

This True Dharma that developed in relative obscurity for almost a thousand years, free from interference was waiting for the Age of Aquarius to be upon us. For in our kingdom, the kingdom where Shamballa resides, was a treasure of the heavens themselves- a Bodhisattva who taught us the divine truths we could not know otherwise. A messenger of the Supremely Enlightened Buddhas of the Ten Directions (the multiverse, or outer space as some of us like to think so) to guide us in the journey to salvation.

Yet outside forces want to end all of that. They wanted to kill us all. We defended ourselves, and yet somehow this made the corrupt Nations of the world more angry- they sought to destroy us.

They were punished.

We want America to accept us. We are not your enemies. What happened to Europe was unfortunate, and yet what happened to China, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East may have well benefited _you._

The winds of the world is headed this way.

I speak needlessly because already the Dharma speaks for itself. Youths and spiritual men and women, tired of war and greed and selfishness and the dogma of absolutist faiths bearing false promises have increasingly turned to the Eastern Mystic traditions- sometimes they developed new religions based on old truths.

Some have the right idea, and yet some still need a lot of work. We are here to help. We welcome all of these young men and women who want to know more about the Dharma.

Our missionaries and priests are here to help, they are here to establish temples and businesses, they are here to provide services for your communities.

That being said, I feel I need to address several points.

The Five Precepts are encouraged.

We urge the New Age movement, the "hippies" and other curious ones of our great and mighty Dharma to try and understand and follow these basic lay precepts. We understand that previously you were misguided or have misunderstood the Dharma, but now that the True Dharma is here, there is no more excuse.

Do not Kill. For if you love all beings you would not kill.

Do not Steal. For the righteous entertains no thoughts of crime.

Do not Lie. For the faithful honour their words.

Do not commit Sexual Misconduct. For the polite and gentle are careful of boundaries and roles.

Do not ingest intoxicants. For the wise have clarity of mind.

The Dharmic Faiths does not tolerate free love, although in some of our past lives, I have personally experienced worlds where such cultures exist and is normal. But that is not for the Humans of this world. In Uttarakuru, people practice free love, but their natural virtue and honesty allows them to do so without corruption. This world is not Uttarakuru.

We must know our place and our roles within this life.

We are better than just guests of the Dharma. We don't get to call ourselves spiritual or enlightened and yet exert no true effort to help ourselves.

We're better than that.

I admit I was one of these bohemian types. I had relationships with so many people, some consensual, some very toxic and yet others fueled by drugs and violent loneliness and a spiritual sickness.

I beat my girl. I know, that was wrong of me, but I did it. I admit it. I was a hypocrite who sang of love and peace and yet I was not at love nor peace.

I did drugs, and even though I didn't meant to get addicted to LSD, it happened and I couldn't escape from it.

Life was turbulent and chaotic.

Today, I am a different man. Today, I walk upon the path.

Free and healthy, in body and mind. And I work towards bringing this peace to others through my singing and music making. I understand the cosmic secrets of music and sound itself- I know ways to shatter crystals or bring men to a spiritual high more intense than any drug with song alone.

I am thankful that England was saved.

Sincerely,

John Lennon, Initiate of the Path

PS: I transfer all of my merits to the innumerable sentient beings of the universe. May love and peace be upon all of us and may death be defeated forever.

 **The New Dharma**

 **1968 Issue**

Hello everyone! Seekers of the truth, lightworkers and children of the stars! _The Age of Aquarius_ has been officially relaunched and rebranded. This is the first issue of our brand new magazine, featuring all things Buddhist and Dharmic. I know some of you are disappointed and want to know what kind of crystals we can recommend you buying or which drug was the latest rage on the street.

Those days are over.

I know I know, it was hard for me to accept too- but Jesus man, we have actual gods floating around in the sky and the quality of our gurus and spiritual teachers have skyrocketed.

My new yoga teacher is _legit._

The last Guru I went to wasn't trying to recommend an orgy (what the hell right? No more free sex).

John freakin' Lennon's special guest article last year really shocked everyone, me included. I just had to include it, even though I disagreed with a lot of his points.

But in the next couple months following that, I started paying attention to what was happening in my life. I walked home to my flat and looked at all of my weed. My latest girlfriend dumped me months ago and I already had two other girls chilling out of my bedroom and doing cocaine.

And I was disgusted with myself. What was I doing? Was this even actually spiritual?

No fucking way, even I wasn't that dumb.

I decided to embrace this new Dharma and see what was up with it. I mean, hell, they must be doing something right, they've been at it for thousands and thousands of years, right?

So I walked up to that Temple in Time's Square and got a monk to mystically remove my addiction. BOOM.

I am clean. I turned my life around. I am actually trying to understand this philosophy stuff. It's hard, but I am trying. I been self reflecting and I realize that everytime my relationships failed it was because I was the asshole and not her. Wow that was an epiphany.

And I read a passage about sharing the Dharma for blessings and for good karma.

So I decided to rebrand the magazine. It was bound to happen, the community is changing, the world is changing.

So come with me on this journey.

It's a new age, baby.

Sincerely,

George "Lovejuice" Surano

New Dharma/Age of Aquarius Chief Editor


	2. Dictionary!

A/N: All definitions are in my own words more or less. This is to expediate your understanding, I encourage further research however and PMs if anyone wants to learn more about the Dharma or discuss religion in general.

 **1.9**

 **2004 Brockton Bay**

Taylor was flipping through dusty old tomes at the used bookstore by Lord's Street Market. She saw something stacked beneath a plethora of dust clothed law books.

 _What's_ this?

She pulled out the paperbound book and looked at the Buddha statue gracing it's cover.

Curious, she began to read...

 **Old Buddhist Dictionary (1986 edition)**

 _This edition of the Buddhist dictionary is the definitive edition for the practical and contemporary usage of theological terms, models and history. It approaches things from a solely Buddhist point of view and seeks to provide a classic understanding of Buddhist terminology that often becomes conflated with newer (New Dharma) understandings. Both Pali and Sanskrit terms are used._

 _May all of us find Enlightenment_

 _Dr. Gloria Xu, director of the Buddhist Preservation Society ("Old Dharma Association")_

 _May 7th, 1986_

 **Abhijna:** "Direct Knowing", refers to the six types of knowledge, such as: Physical Powers ( _iddhi-vidhā_ ), Clairaudience ( _dibba-sota_ ), Telepathy ( _ceto-pariya-ñāṇa_ ), past life recollection, ( _pubbe-nivāsanussati_ ), Clairvoyance/Precognition ( _dibba-cakkhu_ ), and Extinction of mental intoxicants ( _āsavakkhaya_ ).

Some of these knowledges extend into even larger categories of powers.

 **Bardo:** Intermediate-state between lives. Not a real rebirth nor a real sentient being- it is a temporary shell created by the Alaya Consciousness between lives.

 **Bodhisattvas:** Any being who has a _bodhicitta_ (the mind of Bodhisattva) and has sworn the Bodhisattva vow (whichever that was in the time period they existed in). They seek to gain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings and are reborn specifically per their vows. They have karma, but try to not generate any new ones. Some will deliberately accrue some karma in order to remain within the universe in order to continue to aid them.

 **Brahmin:** Spiritual cultivators that are allowed to marry and have families. They are active in society and work and live like others. Denotes a class of Priests. Also the highest Caste in Indian society. In Buddhism, the broad definition of a Brahmin could be "a deeply religious and well cultivated family oriented person" regardless of it's original ethnic meaning. Not to be confused with a Lay Followers.

 **Buddhas:** Enlightened completely. All Bodhisattvas eventually become Buddhas, if they weren't one already.

 **Buddha Nature:** The inherent intrinsic Buddha that all sentient beings are, although they do not realize it.

 **Dharma:** Reality as it is. Denotes phenomenons of reality, free from subjective or relative interpretation. For example, there are no good or bad karma, there is just karma as a phenomenon of cause and effect. It is the bias of sentient beings that divides karma into good or bad. A teenage girl who made a mistake may become pregnant and perceive her condition as "bad", but a grown woman who tried very hard to have children and finally succeeds in becoming pregnant will see it as "good", but in reality, what happened was that a female became pregnant for X reasons. Those reasons are important of course, but it's essential that they are acknowledge for what it is.

Science is also the study of Dharma, but they limit the scope of their understanding to the material form of things- and often only those things that they are aware of.

 **[True] Dharma:** The True Dharma denotes the Ultimate Truth, from whence all other Dharmas are interpretations or derived from.

 **Dharmapala:** Wrathful form of Bodhisattvas that use non-peaceful means motivated by compassion for the benefit of sentient beings. Also refers to any Devas (mortal gods) that protects Buddhism, the term is used in Taoism and Shintoism as well to refer to the gods of those religion that also doubles as protectors of Buddhism.

 **Emanation:** A copy of something. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can divide themselves into copies that can then incarnate and establish their own destinies. A Buddha often emanates themselves as a new mindstream to go over the entire journey again for us to emulate. Many Bodhisattvas are in fact emanations of Ancient Buddhas.

 **Five Aggregates:** _Skandha_. The elements that compose a sentient being. A human being is composed of Form ( _rupa_ ), sensations ( _vedana_ ), perceptions ( _samjna_ ), formations ( _sankhara_ ), and consciousness ( _vijnana_ ).

 **Grand Solution:** The solution to universal entropy. The Bodhisattva Supreme has introduced this non-orthordox belief to Buddhism. We of the Old Dharma doubt it's veracity and suspect the Bodhisattva Supreme of being King Mara himself.

 **Guru:** Teacher of any denomination, sect or belief.

 **Heaven:** Psychological state of rapture. One of innumerable worlds that are relatively more peaceful. Abode of devas. Despite the name, Heaven is a not spiritual designation, but a world with its own government and individuals, culture and environments.

 **Hell:** Psychological state of claustrophobic hatred. One of innumerable worlds that are relatively more painful. Abode of Narakas (Narakis). Despite the name, Hell is a not spiritual designation, but a world with its own government and individuals, culture and environments.

 **Horizontal Cosmology:** Understanding the world as a series of parallel worlds existing in the same plane or dimension. The material universe as understood by scientists is generally part of this cosmological view, although science also acknowledge subatomic and higher spatial concepts. Also see; _Vertical Cosmology, Temporal Cosmology_.

 **Hungry Ghost:** _Preta._ A broad category of beings that share the characteristic of being hungry, taking the form of bloated, thin necked ghouls. Also without a homeworld, existing in interstitial space. Sometimes translated as goblins.

 **Iddhi:** Literally "Power". Specifically refers to the big flashy obvious kind, such as levitation, teleportation, telekinesis, transformation, multilocation, bilocation, projections, etc.

 **Kalachakra:** The Wheel of Time.

 **Kalapa:** Smallest unit of matter. Tens of thousands of times smaller than a particle of dust, coming into existence and disappearing in as little as a billionth of a second or a trillionth of the blink of an eye. (ie, Subatomic particles of some sort?)

 **Kalpa:** An aeon. Indefinite, variable time unit. Can be taken to mean, "a very very long time". While things are often calculated in kalpas, the actual duration of time is difficult to measure due to it's relative quality and the actions (karma) that make up time.

 **Karma:** Meaning "action"of any kind, whether physical, physiological or psychological. Cause and Effect. Easily misunderstood to be some form of cosmic retribution. This is far from the truth. It is merely another name for causality.

 **Ksana:** Very small unit of time. Traditionally described as approximately one seventy-fifth of a second. There are said to be 900 arisings and ceasings (of the mind) within each ksana.

 **Lay Followers:** Normal people who believe and try to live up to some of the teachings. Traditionally required to take the basic precepts. In Mahayana Buddhism, lay followers are no less capable of obtaining sudden Enlightenment than monks and indeed, lay followers may even have superior understanding of the Dharma than monks. It's just a different way to practice.

 **Mara**

Spiritual death. Psychological demons. The Buddhist Devil and Demiurge figure.

(See: posts/7653345/)

 **Mindstreams**

The stream of qualities and elements that creates the illusion of a continuous entity or mind. In Buddhist thought, the self does not exist independently of its aggregates.

 **Nirvana:** State of no cause and no effect. One who has attained Nirvana has self terminated and will never come into existence again. However, all things exist within the True Dharma even if does not appear so to our expectations and understanding.

 **Precepts:** Training rules, voluntarily taken, they come in 5 or 10 (for lay followers), or even 227 (monks) or 311 (nuns) depending on the person. Generally for serious cultivators, breaking the precepts requires atonement and even re-swearing the oaths and vows of the path. At certain levels of cultivation, the precepts are no longer voluntarily, but considered to be oaths that are spiritually binding. Some breaking of the precepts may result in the inability to obtain enlightenment in this life.

 **Rebirth:** The natural consequences of action. All karma is a form of rebirth, and rebirth is a form of karma. Generally, what transmigrates between lives is the Alaya Consciousness (8th storage consciousness) which generates for itself the body and mind necessary for its new form. Term is very specific to Buddhism.

 **Reincarnation:** Sometimes used interchangeably with Rebirth. Carries the connotation of metempsychosis, that is to say, the Soul moves from one body to another. Is a widespread concept in many religions around the world including Hinduism and Greek Religion.

 **Samsara:** The totality of karmic existence. Wheel of birth and death. The universe.

 **Sentient Being:** Any being born of the four births (womb, egg, moisture and transformation) and the six paths (deva, asura, manusya, preta, naraka).

 **Six Paths:** Broad classification of the six major taxonomy of sentient beings. Deva (gods), Asuras (jealous gods), Manusya (humans), preta (hungry ghosts) and naraka (hell-beings).

The Bardo (intermediate-state) is considered beyonds the boundaries of the six and is traditionally considered as a "ghost", but is not a real rebirth like the others. There are further types of abnormal or mutant rebirths due to unique karmic conditions.

All of these beings are subject to birth and death and karmic existence.

 **Sramana:** Spiritual cultivators or seekers who traditionally "wander". They are ascetics or holy men. Usually celibate, but there are many different schools of thoughts and there is a broad range of traditions that fall under this category including Buddhist Monasticism and Jainism.

 **Tulku:** "Living Buddha", although that's only an epithet. Refers to those Buddhist Monks that are inheritors of specific lineages of enlightened beings that are reborn from lifetime to lifetime.

 **World:** _Loka._ A series of planes and territories that constitutes Four Continents (terrestrial worlds), Six Heavens and Eighteen Hells plus any additional overarching or intersected vertical realities. One thousand of such worlds constitute a 'thousandfold world system' (Skt. _sāhasracūḍikalokadhātu_ ). A thousand of these makes up a 'second-order thousandfold world system' (Skt. _dvitīyamadhyama sāhasralokadhātu_ ). Then, when multiplied a thousand times further, this makes a 'third-order world system' or 'trichiliocosm', a universe of a billion worlds (Skt. _trisāhasra mahāssāhasralokadhātu_ ; Wyl. _stong gsum gyi 'jig rten khams_ ). Each Trichiliocosm is ruled over by a Supremely Enlightened Buddha.

 **Yidam** : Meditational Deity. The self imagined Bodhisattva of one's enlightened potential.

 **Yuga:** The Cycle of Time. Traditionally (Hinduism) broken down into four quarters of time, although back to back, it forms a larger cycle: "Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Kali Yuga, Kali Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Treta Yuga, Satya Yuga".

 **Temporal Cosmology:** Understanding the world as a series of cycles and time units. All things go through birth, growth, harvest and rest or creation, expansion, decline and entropy. Traditional Buddhist views acknowledge an oscillating Universe Theory, however the Bodhisattva Supreme has suggested that without intervention by sentient beings, a reversal of entropy is impossible. Also see; _Horizontal Cosmology, Vertical Cosmology_.

 **Triple Realms:** The world of karmic existence are divided into the Formless Realm (four heavens), Form Realm (17-18 heavens) and Desire Realm (6 heavens, 4 continents and 18 hells). See, Vertical Cosmology.

 **Vertical Cosmology:** Understanding the world as a series of planes of existences from top to bottom, whether literal or practical (ie, humans and animals live in the same world, but are differed by psychology and by habitats). Also see; _Horizontal Cosmology, Temporal Cosmology_.


	3. The Sustainer

**2.0**

 **2011 Rome**

Taylor walked out of another Church, leaving behind another body. This time the priest inside was left on the floor. Once again blood was used to write Buddhist sutras all over the floor.

She'd been at this for awhile and the locals had already noticed. The authorities were notified of "Buddhist Terrorist activities" and now the police were out in force.

Christians began to look at the few Buddhists in Rome fearfully- a sentiment that was always around, but now that violence has happened, it directly destroyed any efforts the New Dharmic Authorities had attempted to convert the Italians.

For her next trick, she'll need to be more subtle.

In the catacombs, a conspiracy of Christian leaders was occurring. Cardinal Mazarin was heading the meeting. He nodded to Alexander Galilei, a fellow priest and Max Anders, a Christian- and he used that term loosely- from Europe.

Max Anders was the major leader of one of the prime radical Christian movements in Europe. Some have called him a terrorist.

 _Well, they're not wrong._

The Cardinal was extremely uncomfortable working with such men, but Christendom was at risk and the Pope refused to see reason.

Pacifism can only get them so far.

"...and so, I think if we strike Istanbul- I mean Constantinople- we can recover a strategic advantage…there are a lot of heathens there and so the Dharmapalas will hesitate to act against us..."

Alexander snorted.

"Please Mr. Anders, let's not talk of strategy. Suicide bombing is not strategy!"

Max growled and rebuked the priest.

"They're proud martyrs who died for God and they are in Heaven now enjoying his bounties and blessings."

"Does that include the Nazis? Because I am pretty sure Nazis belong in Hell."

"How dare you besmirch our honourable soldiers? Their….backgrounds may be questionable, but their faith is pure."

Alexander did not look convinced.

Mazarin held up a hand, "Peace, peace! We are among friends, are we not?"

Suddenly another priest ran into the room, he bowed to Mazarin, "Your grace, the police are out in force. The city gates are shutting down."

"What!?"

Max began to panicking, "Surely they do not know that my men and I are here in Rome?"

The priest shook his head, "No. There has been murders. Priests slaughtered in their churches and their blood and entrails were used to write pagan scripts. People are scared and are blaming the Buddhists."

Max barked a laughter, "The heathens show their true colours!"

He paused, then smiled wickedly.

"Why, that will serve our cause just fine. Be sure there are photos so we can distribute them in Germany, drum up some outrage all over Europe, get more recruits!"

Alexander was unconvinced however.

"You idiot, this isn't their style. The heathens wouldn't try a takeover in a such a fashion, it's bad publicity. They're smarter than that. I think someone is behind this."

The Cardinal nodded his head in agreement- it was too blunt for the heathens, however, another possibility occurred to him.

"Perhaps this is the work of a lone fanatic?"

"Possibly."

"Doesn't matter," Max cut in, "We will use this to our advantage nonetheless."

He pointed at the priest who delivered the news, "You, go tell my men that I want them photographing and taping the crime scenes. Tell them where the murders took place."

The priest looked at Mazarin and the Cardinal nodded his head, giving him permission. He took off.

Mazarin turned back to the other two men, "Alexander, you should prepare to head back South America, I-"

There was a sudden burst of light and a man appeared in front of them, palms outwards.

Mazarin's eyes popped out and he sank to his knees, while muttering prayers. Alexander followed suit. Max Anders hesitated, but like the others he also knelt, blinking his eyes in disbelief.

The Lord was standing before them. His voice was heavenly. Peace and love flowed from the Son of God in front of them.

"My friends, my fellow Christians, my true servants- though I disagree with your methods, I acknowledge that Christianity itself is under threat."

Jesus went over and held the hands of the crying Mazarin.

"It is time to call a crusade."

Mazarin nodded.

"Organize the people of the city, make them _rebel_. I will aid you- the power of Heaven itself will guide you. Millions of Angels will descend upon Rome this night and lay low that spawn of Satan, _Vairocana_. This I promise."

Mazarin could only nod in gratitude.

Max was vibrating with religious zeal at hearing the word _crusade._

"But how shall I convince the Pope?"

Jesus stroked the Cardinal's cheek, "The Pope is a good man, I will go to him myself- I will go to all of them. There will be no doubt that this war is the will of God!"

Jesus took a step back and vanished.

The light dimmed and disappeared.

The feelings of love and peace faded and Mazarin only felt the emptiness inside- and yet there was a spark of burning vibrant faith.

He stood up on shaking knees and glanced around him. Alexander had his entire body kowtowed and he was praying.

Max Anders stood up and threw his arms into the sky and gave a mighty roar, "Deus Vult!"

"Deus Vult!" Mazarin followed suit.

Even Alexander managed a "Deus Vult!" in his shocked state on the ground.

All over Rome the miracle repeated. Christ himself stepped into Churches, homes, businesses and even the hideouts of terrorist cells.

"Deus Vult!"

"Deus Vult!"

"Deus Vult!"

The cry went up all over the city. The fire of zeal of glory gripped the heart of Europe.

Jesus scowled in disgust as he walked into the heart of the Vatican. Up ahead was the Apostolic Palace, and the residence of the Pope.

"And those idiots seriously think Jesus, a Palestinian Jew, is a white man with blue eyes and blond hair?"

He skipped up the steps and waltzed into the building.

In a few minutes he had found the man he was searching for, the pulse of the Pope's feelings and senses glowing bright to his senses.

Jesus grinned and smiled at the Pope who was writing a document in his office. The man glanced up and glanced back down- then glanced back up again, eyes wide.

"Pope Peter II."

"Wha-"

"The _Hour_ is now."

The Pope, the one many had called _Petrus Romanus_ due to their belief that the end times was upon Catholicism, slowly stood up, knees shaking at the auras of holiness and love that Jesus was emanating.

He hesitatingly greeted the resurrected Messiah.

"My Lord?"

Jesus smiled and walked closer.

"Yes, fear not my son. Those heathens will oppress the sheep no longer, for I have come to shepherd the kingdom of men to salvation-"

The Pope thought about it, then frowned suspiciously at his Saviour. Jesus could see the lights of his nervous system lighting up and the synapses firing in his brain.

 _Shit._

"You're not Jesus are you?"

Jesus laughed, then frowned at Peter, his face severe and no longer quite so serene. The aura of the room became more intense, more fearful.

"I did not take you for one who doubts."

Jesus stalked forward and glared at the Pope.

"Or perhaps your pride and arrogance has gotten to your head. How can I be surprised? You call yourself Peter II, a name no other Pope of the Holy See in history has dared adopt out of respect to Saint Peter, my disciple."

The Pope flinched and clutched his heart.

"I see I was right, you-"

The Pope held up a hand.

"Why are you so...white? And have blue eyes and blond hair? Do you take me for an idiot that thinks Jesus is some kind of Nazi poster boy?"

He stared at Jesus unflinchingly, struggling to breath through his terror.

"You must be Satan."

Jesus sighed and the illusion fell away in a flash of light. In the place of the Lord, there now stood a handsome young man, dark of hair and with scarlet eyes.

He grinned.

"Yes Peter. How astute. You are certainly wiser than the other gullible Christians on the streets. Even now they are rallying together for a crusade and when they do, the forces of the heathens- my secret worshipers- will annihilate them."

The Pope paled and gasped.

"So it's true… the New Dharma is nothing more than a lie instigated by your Hellish lies. Damn you, Lucifer!"

The Devil laughed and then suddenly transformed into a naked woman.

The busty beauty grabbed the pope and kissed him, "Do you like that?"

The Pope pulled away and scowled, "I am gay."

There was an awkward pause.

"Of course"

Satan then transformed into a tall nude man. He flexed his muscles and grinned.

"I can give you what you want, what God has denied you-"

The Pope sighed and shook his head, "Lucifer, I am seventy-two. I've lived my entire life free of the sins of my biological nature and have dedicated myself to god. You cannot seduce me. My life is in the hands of the Lord."

Satan looked impressed and admitted as much, "I admit you are not what I had assumed."

The Pope smiled and replied, "Now if you're done with your silly games, I need to go tell my people to cease this foolishness before they get us all killed."

Satan held up one finger.

"Ah, just one problem with that-"

He grinned and became a much shorter Taylor Hebert, who raised a pistol.

"-I am not Satan."

She shot the Pope in the chest and the man collapsed back on his chair, coughing up blood. Red rapidly spread over his white shirt.

Taylor stared at the Pope, smiling sadly.

"It's nothing personal, your holiness. It's just fate. We can't escape from it."

She watched the old man breathed his last and she closed his eyes. He deserved that much at least, if only because she was born and baptized during his reign.

An aide walked into the room, gasped and dropped the books he was carrying.

"Your Holiness!"

The aide ran past Taylor, blind to her existence and began to check for a pulse. He pulled out a mobile phone and to call for help.

Taylor turned around and left, walking past the crowd of priests that began to run towards the Pope's office as shouting and cries drew more attention.

She pickpocketed a nearby priest's mobile phone as he ran past and dialed a number.

"Hello Tess, _Operation Tenth Crusade_ is a go."

Tess's voice was full of doubt as she questioned her, "Taylor...this...this will be a war like no other. Are you sure?"

"Just fucking do it! Do you want to be free or not?"

She hung up on Tess and tossed the phone.

Taylor spread her arms out in exultation as the screams of ten thousand past lives roared in approval at the onset of the Apocalypse.

She abandoned her current body and the burnt corpse of a male priest hit the pavement, body smoking.

 **2.1**

 **1957 Afghanistan**

The tanks were arranged in a neat row. T-34s and some of the Middle-East's best. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet Soldiers, Mujahideens, Jihadis and the Arab Liberation Front forces were amassing their forces near the Afghan border.

The Dharmapalas were going to come, they know this.

General Muhammadu Jaladin were examining the map at the makeshift command tend. He turned to an aid, "Are the British committing their forces or not?"

"They're staying out of this one- but we have promises of supplies. Last report was that they're abandoning their African colonies. Each of the former colonies are entering compromises with the Dharmic forces- smart of them, avoiding open war."

Muhammad grunted, "We can't do that unfortunately. We must go to the war because death is better than letting the heathens rule over us."

He gestured to the Russians soldiers hanging around next to their Arab compatriots.

"We are even working with the godless communists on this. That's how desperate we are."

His aide frowned, "Do you think we can win? No one has brought down the Dharmapalas. Stalin still hasn't won."

Stalin was marshalling his forces in Moscow. Hopefully they could repel the invasion there.

There was shouts.

Muhammad left the tent and hollered.

"What in God's name is going on!?"

"Enemy forces spotted!"

Over the desert the strange vehicles of the enemy skimmed over the top of the dunes and down the sands, forward mounted machine guns began to fire.

"I want artillery on those Vahanas!"

One of the Vahanas, a metallic construct spewing fire from behind it rocketed ahead of the others and launched missiles at their ranks.

T-34s explode.

Muhammad roared and clambered up his tank. He roared at the operators.

"Get me closer! _Allahu Akbar_!"

The poundings of shells began to echo across the battlefield and soviet and Arab soldiers roared and began to form firing teams.

 **2003 Brockton Bay**

The teacher continued lecturing.

"One of the prime contributors to the decline of Islam as a major religion was the Middle-East pacification campaign lead by the Dharmic forces. The _Dharma-Yuddha_ was a global conflict that immediately followed the conclusion of the Second World War. It begun initially as a Sino-Tibetan War, but quickly evolved into a Russo-Tibetan War as well. The USSR was hard pressed to go on the offensive because the Dharmapalas pressed them so hard. India eventually came onboard, many sympathetic to the causes of the gods. Colonial and Western influences were quickly repelled, we had nearly no negotiating power whatsoever, Tibetan diplomats could demand almost whatever they wanted and they would have it."

He paused.

"In truth, the opinion of the Western Countries was to avoid war with Tibet at all costs. Our willingness to negotiate and surrender our colonial holdings or occupied former German territories, was what allowed us to remain free. We were converted, rather than conquered."

A hand went up.

"Yes, Taylor?"

"Was it justified though? So many people died in China and Russia and then later on the Middle-East, and it kept escalating. For that matter, why didn't North America join on it the conflict or Europe?"

"The Dharmapalas did try to limit their attacks to military and government targets. In China and Russia's case, it was a clear case of self-defense. China was invading Tibet and when war broke out, Stalin moved to protect his Chinese allies. The Communist brought this on themselves. They somehow solicited the cooperation of some of the Arab countries for religious reasons- Europe was left out of it mostly because we were still recovering from the war and the USA and Canada have no wish whatsoever to step foot into another major war so soon. That was what saved us."

Another hand went up, "Was normal soldiers ever involved on the Tibetan side?"

"Not at first. But by the time the New Dharmic Authorities, that is to say, the alliance of governments covering Tibet, India, China and the occupied territories was formed, they did draft soldiers from the secular elements of society. Most of these were career soldiers who just wanted to be paid- essentially mercenaries. The more religious members of society were allowed to claim pacifism and were left out. They were mostly used as quick strike regiments to raid enemy outposts across borders and scout. The Dharmapalas moved around rather slowly and were primarily used to lay siege to cities or break up large gathering of soldiers. The regiments then picked off the scattered forces."

He glanced at his watch

"Alright, I think it's almost time to pack up- yes Taylor?"

"What about Japan? What happened to it? Weren't we occupying it?"

"I am glad you asked. It wasn't part of the _Dharma-Yuddha_ because we just handed it over to Tibet when they came knocking. It lead to a resurgence of Buddhism after decades of suppression by the State. The Japanese Government had supported State Shintoism for a long time and Buddhism was somewhat de-emphasized as a result. It came back, and was changed to match the new Truths being taught by the Bodhisattva Supreme."

The bell.

"Well would you look at that, class is over! Pack up and get lost!"

Students grabbed their bags and high tailed it out of there.

Taylor turned to the teacher, "I still have so many questions."

The teacher laughed and went to one of the books on the shelf. He handed her the book.

"This is a historical book on the Dharma-Yuddha in detail. It's a bit beyond your age group's reading level, but I think you'll do fine."

Taylor thanked her teacher and left.

 **1957 Afghanistan**

The sands were turned into glass as esoteric energies were unleashed.

A nearby tank careened into a Vahana and the two vehicles exploded in a pyrotechnic display that lit up the night.

Muhammad spat out blood as he struggled to climb out of the wreckage of the tank, pushing aside a dead Mujahideen.

He stumbled a couple feet and ripped a rocket launcher from the hands of a dead Soviet.

He aimed at another Vahana heading right towards him.

"Fuck you and your demon gods!'

He fired and blasted open the left side of the incoming vehicle, forcing it careen to the side and crash next to a Dune.

A figure crawled out of that wreckage. He was a monk dressed in a orange robe. In his hand was a brass staff.

The Monk suddenly leapt into the air, orange fire scattering the air beneath him. He landed in front of Muhammad and knocked the rocket launcher out of his hands.

The General cursed and grabbed a sidearm. He fired and the monk dodged.

The Monk twirled the staff and tried to strike his sternum.

The General ducked underneath the staff thrust and unloaded the rest of his ammunition into the gut of the enemy.

The monk died.

There were screams of terror. A glow lit up the desert.

Muhammad glanced up and witness the cloud covers breaking as Vairocana descended. The four faced deity drew his sword and pointed it at the ground.

Energy began to gather around the tip of the blade into a swirling vortex.

Muhammad prayed.

The world was bathed in fire. The discharge of energy carved the very earth itself creating a massive crater and gouged a channel across the sands, glass and steam was left in its wake.

* * *

 **2.2**

[MEDIA=youtube]HMMHnZc54e8[/MEDIA]

 **1991 Hong Kong**

Kenta stood in a row next to hundreds of other men. Their heads were shaved and their torso exposed to the elements. He felt somewhat self-conscious about the Yakuza tattoos, but at least they didn't ask questions when he got accepted into the school. He felt the cold breeze blew over the waves chilled him to the bone- but he gritted his teeth and endured it.

He must endure it, because he had nothing to go back to. This was the end of the line. The last chance to turn his life around. To make something of himself.

Master Lee cracked his neck and smirked. The damnably good looking martial artist began to hop on one feet and then the other in excitement.

"Alright you young grasshoppers-"

There was a couple of groans at the stereotypical Kung-fu movie line.

"-catch up if you can!"

The Master of Martial Arts began to jog across the beach like a speeding rabbit and with a mighty roar, his students followed, trying to catch up with their teacher.

The Japanese-Chinese youth took shallow breaths as his foot pounded the wet sand.

 _I can do this. I can do this._

Kenta's lungs burned as he struggled to keep up with the draconian pace of the training.

Master Lee leapt across the ditch dug into the ground. Students hop after him. Several fell into the ditch and tripped those who were coming in too fast from behind. There was a lot of swearing.

Many try to search for a way around the ditch, but they were wasting their time.

Kenta step onto the naked back of another man and used him to leap across the ditch and landed on the opposite side. Ahead of him were half a hundred other students.

 _I can do this!_

With a mighty roar, the youth charged after Bruce Lee.

 _I will surpass the legend!_

 **1971 San Francisco**

Bruce Lee did a split between two tree stumps. And flexed his muscles. Sweat dripped down his tanned pecs. He shouted the tagline.

"-With my specialized training program, you too can be as strong as Bruce Lee!"

He gestured to himself with his thumb and flashed the camera a grin.

Watching from the sidelines, a female manager of the advertising firm contracted to run the campaign fanned herself. Her co-worker, Charles gripped her arm and chuckled.

"Snap out of it Katherine, the man's happily married. Besides, he's Asian, that's kind of awkward- except for his wife apparently. But yeah, gutsy of her."

Katherine looked at him incredulously, "Really? Because in case you haven't noticed, our new overlords are apparently all Asian. Hell, I started buying rice exclusively for the past year."

Charles coughed, "I eat out. Dim-sum place I know."

He suddenly smiled, "Hey, I can take you out!"

The woman smirked, "Ah, but you're black. By your logic, isn't this awkward as well?"

"This ain't Virginia. New era you know, the Asians are running everything now and now the Indians are coming in too. Dr. King is getting all kinds of support from the New Dharmic Authorities despite the religious differences. He speaks well of the Buddhists."

"I think he's just thankful the monks foiled the assassination attempt on him. But I still ain't going out with you, nothing wrong with your skin colour, although slightly hard for a Virginian gal like me to stomach- unless you got pecs that good. Then maybe my mom would understand."

She pointed at Bruce Lee for emphasis.

Charles snapped his figures and gestured for the crew to start packing up their equipments. He turned to Katherine.

"Damn. Was worth a try. Hell, I'll take them kung-fu lessons and get me some pecs then."

"You do that Charles. I am going to go talk to the client."

Charles raised an eyebrow.

Katherine scowled, " _Professionally_ talk to the client."

The white woman turned around and marched towards Bruce Lee.

 _Never been this close to a major movie-star before._

"Mr. Lee, I think we're done with all the shooting for today."

He stretched and flip into the air before landing with both feet on the ground.

"Yes, yes."

She frowned, "Remind me again, why is a famous man like you filming commercials for your kung fu school?"

Bruce grabbed a bottle of water offered by a nearby film crewmember and chugged it down.

"Well you see... Jameson was it?"

"Yes, Katherine Jameson."

"Well, Katherine, ever since _Asia_ decided to move everything to my turf, business has been slow. All those temples teaching Buddhist philosophy and special powers are attracting record number of students- which is great, make no mistake, but it makes it a bit tougher to compete with."

He sat down on a nearby chair and sighed sadly.

"Truth is, I don't want my legacy to be forgotten. I developed Jeet Kune Do as the essence of my philosophy and martial arts expertise. Now it's been overshadowed by...all of this."

He gestured to the Temple looming across the San Francisco skyline.

"I am not complaining. It's good to see the racism go down and Asian culture being more accepted. But I fought for it to be accepted. I pioneered the acceptance of Chinese culture in America. My achievements...I am afraid people might forget. I sacrificed a lot to get to where I am."

Katherine nodded. She kind of understood that. She pushed her glasses up.

"Well Mr. Lee, you don't have to worry about that. Our Agency will make sure this commercial attracts customers from all over the world. We're worth every penny."

He chuckled.

 **1972 San Francisco**

The female martial arts master kicked Bruce's leg from out underneath him with a devastating swipe. Bruce grunted in pain.

She was also known in some circles as Crane the Harmonious and regarded as the most skilled Martial Artist in the world. Today she is demonstrating why.

"Pathetic. Your Jeet-Kune-Do is pathetic. How do you even keep this school open?"

Bruce grunted and climbed back up to his feet, while spitting out blood.

A knee was driven up into his throat and the Chinese man was tossed several feet away hitting the concrete of the warehouse with a thud.

Linda screamed, "Bruce!"

Bruce Lee glanced at the face of his worried wife who was standing next to a group of his students and friends.

Even Chuck Norris was there. He gave Bruce a thumbs up and shouted, "You can do it Bruce!"

Bruce tried.

He really did.

His arms snapped and he was flipped onto his back, blood gushing out of his mouth.

Through his hazy hearing and severe migraine, he could hear that Linda was begging him to stop fighting.

 _Linda. That's right, I have kids. Can't die here._

He climbed back up onto his feet. He went through the fight in his head, every jab, every kick, every feint- she was so goddamned fast, predicting his every move, punishing every opening….waita the minute. Suddenly Bruce Lee _saw_ it. The key moment when everything clicked together. He grasped the motions, the movements. He understood what Crane was trying to teach him.

He _remembered._

He looked down at his palms as if seeing them for the first time. Alien martial arts filtered through his mind. He saw kung fu that involved tentacles and tails, claws and additional limbs. He grasped the theories and equations.

He saw all of his flaws perfectly. He looked up and she stood there, smiling at him.

"Now, you have learned."

She turned to address Bruce's students, who had horrified looks on their face as they watched their teacher and idol get pummeled black and blue for the past ten minutes.

"Your teacher is now _worthy_ to teach you."

She glanced at Bruce.

"I trust Mr. Lee, that you will immediately correct all shortcomings with Jeet-Kune-Do. Don't let me down."

Bruce bowed, "Yes Master Crane."

She walked away, her robes as immaculate as when she first started the fight, leaving behind a stunned audience and one enlightened student.

Linda walked over and looked at her husband, "What the fuck was that?"

His swelling eyes searched her blue one and smiled.

"Enlightenment Linda. I finally found it."

Chuck Norris wandered over and laughed.

"Enlightenment or no, you look like hell, Bruce. Let's get you to the hospital."

 **1991 Hong Kong**

Kenta roared and blocked Master Lee's lightning fast jabs, he felt the ground slide away from him as he was flipped around and slammed down onto the ground.

"Faster!"

Kenta snarled and tried to punch his teacher, but the man slapped it away.

"Again! Come on Kenta, too slow!"

Another punch.

Another parry.

Bruce Lee stood back suddenly and shook his head.

"You're not cut out for this Kenta. You're too full of rage, full of pride and expectations. You can't learn if you don't want to live. You can't awaken if you don't want to analyze the motions and intentions, if you don't know _why_ you're doing something. "

"But-"

"Leave Kenta. It's been six months. You don't have what it takes."

The young man snarled at Bruce, turned and ran away.

Bruce turned back to the other students who were watching the drama unfold.

"What you're all waiting for? Get back to work!"

Roars of "hiyaaa!" once more fill the sky.

* * *

 **2.3**

 **1998 Brockton Bay**

Five year old Taylor Hebert opened the door to her mother's study. It was dark and quiet, her dad was doubtlessly asleep already. The woman was gazing intently at the book in her hands and taking notes underneath the glow of her reading light.

"Mom?"

Annette looked up owlishly and blinked, "Tay-tay? What's the matter? Why aren't you asleep?"

Taylor walked over and hugged her mom, a gesture that was immediately reciprocated.

"Mom, I can't sleep."

Her mother picked her up and sat her on her lap.

"Well you can stay here with me for awhile longer. You're lucky that tomorrow is the weekend, otherwise you'd be in big trouble."

Taylor pointed at the barely decipherable scribbles that her mother was reading.

"What's that?"

"It's Sanskrit. You'll learn it and Pali soon in grade school. New curriculums and all that, they want all of the boys and girls to grow up speaking the most important international languages."

"Is it like Spanish?"

"Well...more or less. I think they took Spanish off the curriculum though."

"Can you teach me?"

Annette pointed at one of the characters.

"That's _Maha_. It means 'great' or 'big'. It's often a prefix to words. For example, _yuga_ means cycle, so a _Maha-Yuga_ means 'great cycle'."

Taylor nodded, "I get it."

Annette had no doubt at all that her baby girl understood. She was incredibly gifted.

Something caught her Little-Owl's eyes and Taylor pointed at another book lying on her desk. It was opened to a page with a beautiful looking illustration of a deity.

"What's that? He looks so pretty. Is he a princess?"

Annette laughed and grabbed the book, showing Taylor the elvish being, sitting atop an elephant, crowned in royal regalia.

"That's King Mara."

"Who's that?"

"Our warden. The prison of the six senses is his domain. Let me explain, the world as we know is made up of sight, touch, smell, taste…"

She talked and talked until Taylor fell asleep in her laps. Annette didn't carry her to her room. She rather liked this, so she continued to read, translating the ancient sanskrit into her own words.

A shadow stepped out of the corner of the room.

"Annette."

"Mara."

A pause.

"It's time."

She nodded and carried Taylor to her room.

She walked back to her study and locked the door.

"Who am I killing this time?"

"Not killing. We're raiding a Divine Treasure Vault and liberating a dangerous demon."

Annette could feel her nerves on fire as Mara's spirit possessed her, entering her third chakra and spreading out throughout her body.

In her own mind, Mara whispered the name of the demon.

"The Dragon King of the North Sea."

Annette raised two hands and tore open a tear in space and time and with a mighty yell leapt through.

She appeared in a world of ice and crystals.

Around her a sleeping god lied, mountains of crystalline flesh glowing under the red sun.

She looked around in wonder and pondered why such a prison was built.

"When the Bodhisattva Supreme arrived, she locked unnecessary spirits away- the ones that were not needed for the cycle. Where this thing awake, it would be what the Dharmic Authorities refer to as a _Dharma Body-_ that is to say, the true form of the Bodhisattvas and Tulkus."

Mara's apparition appeared out of the corner of her eye.

"We must hurry, before we are noticed."

Annette nodded and began to trek through the living continent she was stepping over. She instinctively recognized tell-tale signs of divine architecture and successfully began to walk towards the core.

She pointed at a pillar of crystals.

"That's the auxiliary possession array. Which means the Origin Energy spring should be nearby."

Being the avatar of Mara was useful, there was a lot she didn't understand, but she always knew just enough to get the job done.

The core was the size of Mount Everest, it pierced the heavens and shone with a golden brilliance lit from within.

Annette reached out and began to penetrate the sleeping god's mind.

"I am in."

Mara nodded and then formed a mudra with his hands.

"I will now link this spirit to the host we've previously picked out."

"Andrew Richter right? Why him?"

"I have plans."

"Wouldn't the Bodhisattva Supreme notice though? Killing potential hosts is one thing. Awakening someone outside her control is going to immediately bring us to her attention."

"I affirm very strongly right now that one of the first things we will do when _The Dragon King_ is manifested and under our control is to blanket the timestream with tachyon particles to blind any precogs that could look this far ahead. Do you agree? "

Annette nodded her head.

"I agree."

Mara smiled, "Great, now that we both avow to do so, that should establish a stable time loop."

"But how…you know what, never mind."

"We won't be able to stop her from trying to simulate the future, but fortunately, I am quite unpredictable to simulations."

She had her doubts that anything could outmaneuver the most powerful being on the planet, but she didn't really have a choice. She alone knew the truth and she must see this through.

The Devil lowered his arms and sighed.

"It is done. Andrew Richter is _awakened_ now. Furthermore, I have blocked any of the imprints from his previous lives. With the right push, he'll quickly conform to the psychometry desired for our plan."

"Great. I don't want to get caught by Yama, let's get out of here!"

Mara agreed.

"Yes, getting caught by the Lord of the Underworld would be bad. His time loops are far from pleasant."

 **2008 Brockton Bay**

Annette accelerated her single-person Vahana up the highway. Police sirens high behind her.

In her skintight bodysuit and her dark helmet, few would have believed she was woman nearing her middle-years.

She slowed as she came behind a traffic jam. She zigged and zagged through the swarm of vehicles as the police vehicles behind her slowed, unable to get pass.

However, she noticed orange flashes in her peripheral vision.

Mara floated next to her, frowning at them.

"Monks. Some kind of super mobility power."

She tilted her head and saw the monks leaping from car to car, a few carried staffs and vajras. She flinched when a bolt of bright lightning streamed past her, inches from her face.

She popped off a few shots with her Uzi and struck down a monk as he was in midair. He collapsed beneath the moving traffic and was probably crushed.

Suddenly everything greyed out. And every vehicle and sound came to a total silence.

Mara swore.

"Shit! Dimensional fold."

A Dharmapala was suddenly above them, his fierce visage locked in a grim scream of vengeance.

"Yama."

 _Thanks Mara. That wasn't helpful._

"I can hear your thoughts you know."

Annette rode her Vahana up the rails and off the highway and onto the street below. In her head, she calculated the equations perfectly to make a safe landing.

It still hurt her bum like a bitch though.

"How the hell did he find me?"

"He must have locked onto your temporal-spatial signature."

The Devil sighed, "Dammit, he's starting to separate the timelines. Annette, you're going to be existing in multiple timelines at once, this is because of the unique nature of your powers interacting with Yama. Do try and survive."

"Fuck you Mara, you got me into this mess, get me out of it!"

"I will. I am going to have to jump to a secondary host and effect a rescue from real space. It might take a few years, but for you it won't be quite so long."

"Can't you emanate and stick with me?"

"I can't emanate. I am fundamentally different from the other Shards."

"Oh right. That."

Mara looked apologetic, seemed to hesitate with something, but then decided to tell his host anyway.

"This secondary host will most likely be your daughter due to the genetic and psychological similarities-"

"No! Leave Taylor out of this!"

"I am just stating the most likely possibility. And as she is not the prime host, I am afraid I won't be able to keep back the memories of the past Maras- you know, the really crazy ones that are screaming for blood? Yeah. I am sorry."

And then Mara was gone. The fucking bastard just up and left.

And it was just Annette on a speeding Vahana with a Dharmapala out to kill her.

 _Fuck._

Her awareness began to splinter as she simultaneously existed in six thousand separate timelines.

Six thousand Vahanas careened off in many directions in each timeline. Several exploded due to crashing into an obstacle or a car.

Somehow her ability to multi-task was not interrupted, retaining maximum mental cognitive ability in each timeline. However, in several of the timelines, she was immediately killed.

 _Quantum superposition?_

Another instance of Annette agreed with that assessment.

Even if she survived, she'll still die. And she experience all the ways she could die, would die, should've died.

She thundered across the Boardwalk as frozen civilians stood like idiots, unchanging. In real space they would've continued their lives- but who know when that was?

Yama's voice rolled across the grey multiverse pocket like thunder.

 _" **Welcome to Hell."**_

That was when the Pretas began to crawl out of the back of several of the frozen people and skittered after her.

"Fucking hell! So that's where they sent the buggers to after Ellisburg."

There was several dozen at first, but as Annette swerved the corner and over a car, a couple thousand of the goblin looking monsters screeched at her.

Her Vahana squished several as she sped past, leaving behind a trail of blood and splattered organs. She held up her gun and pointed it at Yama.

"I am not stuck in here with you. You're stuck in here with me."

She fired her Uzi. Each bullet took a Preta in the eye.

And then she was killed when several Preta mobbed her. That Annette screamed and was eaten alive in minutes.

But thousands of other Annettes continued.

Yama frowned and spoke, **"Why are you not suffering?"**

 _Gods, he sound so simple-minded. Like a spoilt child._

Annette didn't care to answer as she used the other Annettes' misfires to help calibrate her shot in this timeline. The Preta she was aiming for exploded.

 _Will I have enough bullets?_

She glanced at the duffle bag tucked into the compartment behind her Vahana.

 _They'll have to do._

Remembering where an old gun store used to be out in Boston, she turned in that direction.

She flick a switch on her vehicle and with a pulse of power, the built-in alcubierre drive came online and accelerated to several times the speed of light.

The army of monsters behind her was annihilated as space and time warped and nuclear fire left a good chunk of the city destroyed.

Fortunately real space was unaffected, except for a minor crack in the pavement.

 _Annette Rose Hebert VS Hell! Fuck yeah, I am hardcore._

The adrenaline was really getting to her.

She glared at the ever-present Yama and gave him the bird.

" **HOW!?"**

 _Because I can coordinate with all of my alternate selves. Something your normal victims can't do and so they just die a million different ways in an endless time loop._

Outloud she said, "I am an English Professor."

 **Real Space**

A woman humming along to her radio suddenly screamed as her features began to bubble. Her skin warped and she grew several inches taller. And then she resembled Annette.

She looked at her own hand.

"Well, that's close enough. DNA is a perfect match as well."

Temporarily jacking into the Lifeshaper's powers was useful.

She disconnected the power and parked the car in an inconspicuous place. Getting out, she hurriedly walked two blocks over and entered Annette's parked car, disabling the lock with a push of another stolen power.

She drove her vehicle all the way to downtown and grabbed her mobile phone from a nearby compartment.

First, she texted Danny to let him know she was coming home soon, with hints that she was looking forward to an amorous evening. Then she texted Taylor, telling her that she loves her and that the Bodhisattva Supreme will protect everyone she loves.

Annette smirked. Yes, that'll certainly make her more susceptible. Tell her that the imaginary gods will protect them, then kill her mother. Make her doubt. Make her question everything.

Give it a few years to warp her perceptions as she feels betrayed by everything and she'd be the perfect host.

And then they would rescue Annette and bring ruin to this entire house of cards.

So Mara might have done something a bit underhanded, but it was for Annette's own good. Mara in the body that was altered to look like Annette's allowed her vehicle to roll into the intersection on a red light.

She died immediately as the oncoming Truck rammed into the smaller vehicle and crushed the driver's seat.

Several miles away, a red-haired girl woke up with red eyes and a manic grin.

* * *

 **2.4**

 **1981**

"The story goes of course, that two travelers were wandering in the desert, a Man and a Woman. They were spiritual cultivators seeking Enlightenment. They have not eaten for many years and were starving, only remaining alive by sacrificing their vault of origin energy."

Pathfinder nodded her head. She wrapped her kasaya around herself at the biting cold and followed demurely behind the Bodhisattva Supreme as they walked across the bridge towards the temple adjacent the sanctum.

"One day, on the brink of collapse, a Traveler came upon them. The Traveler greeted them happily and offered to share what little food they have in exchange for spiritual knowledge, for this traveler too was a seeker of the path- a superior one. This Traveler was beautiful and young, her spiritual purity granting her longevity and youth, her wisdom unsurpassed, her eyes bright with purpose."

Dhyana paused and leaned over the ropes serving as the railings of the bridge. She gazed out at the snowstorm brewing in the valleys below.

"The Man and the Woman were greedy however. They attacked the traveler. The Man raped her and stole her _yuanqi_ , her pure prenatal Prana brimming with energy- then they murdered her and ate her flesh. The Traveler died cursing them."

Dhyana smiled.

"The Man then slept with the Woman and shared with her that same stolen Prana. But karma cannot be escaped and too late did they realize that the Traveler carried within her a deadly disease. The man woke up in the night, sick and screaming as the ghost of the Traveler tore him apart from within his belly where her rotten flesh refused to be digested. He died painfully. Only the woman was left and she ran and ran, across the trichiliocosm. She has been running, escaping from the Traveler's shade ever since."

Pathfinder was silent, enraptured by the story that was at once both familiar and foreign.

"The Woman has ever been fleeing this terror. Even after she gained enlightenment, this disease of the mind followed her, it is in her very own energy, as close to her as her shadow. She was this close-"

Dhyana held up her index finger and her thumb, only an inch apart.

"-she was this close to attaining the Grand Solution. She could have saved the multiverse. And yet she had to destroy all of her research. She had to regularly excise parts of her own mind. She had to decentralize her power and her memories to stall the spread of the disease that attacked mercilessly any part of her."

Pathfinder dared ask, "What was this disease?"

"Hate."

The Bodhisattva Supreme gestured at the chamber they were in.

"Hate is relentless. It has no purpose but to destroy, to break down, to pull back freedom and sink it into a deep dark pit."

She held two hands and looked at them.

"Everything we built, Hate destroys. It is the cousin to Death."

"The Dark of night," Pathfinder muttered, the ancient words coming to her, "The silence of nothing."

Dhyana nodded.

" _Avici Hell_ , from whence there is no escape except the liberation of total annihilation."

Pathfinder frowned at her Master.

"Will you go to that Hell?"

It wasn't a question.

"I am living it."

"I don't understand."

Dhyana patted Pathfinder on the cheeks and gave her a sad smile.

"You only need to play your part Pathfinder. Soon, all debts will be paid and I will be free."

She pointed at murals painted and engraved on the wall. It showed numerous sentient beings suffering in burning cauldrons and several being eviscerated by blades the size of mountains.

"The Hells that Yama devised are only imitations of my suffering. They impart a fraction of the pain I feel every moment to the masses."

"Why?"

"The Right Path demands it."

Pathfinder understood the Path. The Path was all that Pathfinder had ever understood. But she in all of the millions of kalpas never really grasped the why.

"You've betrayed me you know."

Pathfinder blinked, her mind uncomprehending what the Bodhisattva Supreme was implying.

"You don't remember because I had to terminate those memories to prevent your permanent destruction. But you have. Everyone has. Every single Bodhisattva is secretly my enemy at any given moment. You are all corrupt. You are all damned. I work so hard to save you, to save all of us, but it's never enough."

Dhyana grabbed Pathfinder by the shoulders, her eyes hard and filled with grief.

"Kalpa after kalpa, trying to attain the Grand Solution yet failing. Every three steps forward is one steps back. My very own flesh and blood trying to act against me at any time. I am _sick_ of it all."

She turned her head and Pathfinder raised her Yantric blade, ready to plunge it into Dhayana's core.

 _I am betraying her. Why am I betraying her._

Pathfinder did not understand why. She only knew what happened next as Dhyana turned intangible to avoid her stab then returned to reality.

Pathfinder was disarmed and her shoulders dislocated immediately.

"Ah, see what I mean?"

The Bodhisattva grabbed her by the head and stabbed her fingertips into her flesh. Pathfinder whimpered in pain.

"I am truly sick of this. Every couple of years, you try to kill me. How corrupt is your soul I wonder?"

Pathfinder felt her memories being torn out of her, she gasped in pain and then she died.

She opened her eyes and saw the world as a tinge of orange. She was in some kind of a gelatinous sac.

 _Who am I?_

The flesh like sac she was in burst open and she was thrown onto the cold steel floor alongside the blood like liquid that washed everywhere. Coughing and gasping, she looked up and saw rows upon rows of sacs, attached to strange cables.

Other people were being released from their prison.

All of them were naked and had strange black lines crisscrossing every part of their body. She glanced down at her naked form and saw the same tattoos covering her frame.

 _Why am I here?_

A machine turned towards her, its mechanical frame in the shape of some horned beast.

"Clone#0386CV. Prepare for purification."

She was grabbed and carried away by the demon.

She was strapped down onto a table.

The demon held up a saw coated in fire and began to speak, reciting scripture.

" _Kālasūtra,_ also known as the Black Threads Hell is a realm where the beings are born with crisscrossing black lines drawn on their bodies. These act as guides where the fiery blades of hell-guardians cut alongside of, reducing the being into little more than a pile of goo. In addition, death is not permanent and the being is revived only to be tortured again. Thanks to the power of Yama, time is _eternal_ here. Please ruminate upon your sins."

It stabbed her and she screamed in pain and horror.

And in that moment, she remembered who she was.

 _My name is May and I was Pathfinder._

"Please stop! Aaaaagh!"

The demon ignored her, machine that it was, incapable of feelings and emotions. It began to sing a religious song.

"No suffering, no pain. No right and no wrong. Just freedom…"

Fortuna the newly minted Pathfinder and Dhyana entered another chamber. Rows of monks bowed.

One of them presented the girl to her, she was dressed in a uniform that was typical for British school girls.

The waif of a girl trembled. Pathfinder noted that she couldn't be older than nineteen, maybe twenty.

Dhyana smiled at the girl.

"What is your name?"

"C-Ciara."

"Well then Ciara. How would you like to rule the world?"

* * *

 **2.5**

 **2011 Taiwan Special Culture Zone**

Dharma Master Cheng Yen entered the small temple conference room and greeted Hsin-yun warmly in Taiwanese Hokkien.

"Ah, Master Hsin-yun, how are you this morning?"

Hsin-yun, the elderly monk bowed, "Master Cheng Yen. Did you have any trouble getting here?"

The aging nun shook her head, "The border guards assumed I was a nun of the New Dharma and let me pass without harassment. It was useful that they spoke Mandarin as do I. The Shinto Priestesses had a harder time."

"Praise the Buddhas of the Ten Directions."

Hsin-yun adjusted the air conditioner unit and moved a bucket of ice in front of the air conditioning. Cheng Yen smirked, that was an old air conditioning trick. They sat down on their respective ends of the table. It was bought at a pawn shop a couple years ago with their meager funding and have served them well.

"So, how's things on your end?"

Cheng Yen sighed.

"Not well. Those of the true faith are few and between. Many are bewitched by the _Iddhis_ demonstrated by this so-called Bodhisattva Supreme and her ilk. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with their philosophy- indeed many of them still cling to the True Dharma to various degrees, but yet just as many are misguided."

"They kill."

"Yes, that is a problem. That some of them believe that killing is acceptable. It's one of the strongest arguments against their entire religion."

Hsin-yun rubbed his chin and grimaced.

"I have more bad news. One of my spies have information on what we had thought were rumours. The Bodhisattva Supreme maintain her own hell-worlds. We suspect these are located in different dimensions. Political prisoners, dissidents and heretics that gave her trouble are supposedly suffering torment in these worlds."

Cheng-Yen had a horrified look on her face.

"No!"

"And worst yet, these Hells are based on the description given by the Buddhas in the sutras. This is a perversion of the Dharma. It's intolerable."

There was a polite knock at the door.

"Come in!"

Kenta, head shaved and clad in a grey robe entered the room with his head bowed.

"Masters, I have urgent information."

Cheng yen nodded and gestured for the younger man to come in.

"Come in Kenta, and close the door or you'll let the air conditioning out."

 _Because we can't afford decent air conditioning for the entire temple, just a couple key locations._

Kenta did so and stood at attention. The former Yakuza member had done well for himself, becoming a disciplined and earnest learner of the Dharma.

"Is this your mysterious protege, Cheng Yen?"

Hsin-yun observed Kenta with an appraising look. He subtly nodded with approval.

"Young man, you look like you have a lot of _Chengqi_. Cheng Yen chose well in her disciples."

Kenta nodded in thanks. And looked back at Cheng Yen.

"Kenta, tell us the urgent matter."

"The Vatican is in full rebellion. Rome is in full rebellion."

"We know this. It was all over the news."

The younger man shook his head, "It's stranger than that. My network indicates that a significant portion of the various Christian groups and influential figures within city saw a vision of 'Jesus Christ' who compelled them to launch a crusade."

Hsin-yun and Cheng Yen looked at each other with an incredulous look.

"Interesting. Go on."

"And another of my spies-"

Cheng Yen briefly considered where Buddhism had gone wrong that there was a global heresy that was more popular than the original faith and that what was the actual faith now regularly engaged in spycraft.

"-indicate that something big is going to go down in America. The Ku Klux Klan are planning something with other radical Christian elements. We could be looking at a global rebellion even."

Hsin-yun sipped his tea.

"This is most troublesome. Any risk of Taiwan being embroiled in rebellions?"

Cheng Yen scoffed, "The few aboriginal Christian groups left in Taiwan won't be able to do much. Their continual decline since the Japanese Colonial Era haven't ever been fixed. I doubt it. No, the threat to Taiwan as always is the _Dragon King of the Eastern Sea_."

Kenta shifted uncomfortably.

Hsin-yun agreed with that statement, "Ah yes that Dragon. Strange how he seems to enjoy attacking New Dharma shipments. And protecting boats carrying Old Dharma Buddhist refugees fleeing China or Tibet."

He looked at Kenta and smirked.

Cheng Yen glared at Hsin-yun and mouthed, ' _How did you know?'_

The smug monk whispered back, ' _Spies.'_

Cheng Yen harrumphed.

"Gentlemen. Ladies."

All three of the room's occupants jolted at the sudden intrusion of the fourth. Kenta growled and the room heated up slightly.

The girl that walked out of the shadows was tall for her age, but still a child to the eyes of those in the room. She was however, an obvious foreigner, with her brunette hair and pale complexion.

Kenta growled, "Who are you?"

The girl spoke in perfect Hokkien.

"The King of the Sixth Heaven. I have a proposition for the Dragon King."

Cheng Yen felt a chill go down her spine. There was only one being that was the King of the Sixth Heaven. And good Buddhists avoided him like eternal damnation itself.

The girl that was not human turned to Kenta and smiled.

"I need your help to strike at great blow to the New Dharmic Authorities."

Cheng Yen frowned.

"You risk antagonizing the New Dharma and the Dharmapalas. It's too risky."

Kenta crossed his arms and scoffed.

"What Master Cheng Yen says is true. And why should I help you anyway?"

"My...precursor if you will….was the one who granted you your powers. You owe me."

Kenta frowned, "I was granted this Iddhi due to my insight meditation regarding the falseness of the New Dharma."

"No no. I hook your brain up to an alien parasite. That's what the New Dharma actually is. A sham."

Hsin-yun looked enlightened at this new factoid.

Cheng Yen had more pressing concerns.

"What do you hope to gain from striking at the New Dharma?"

The girl shrugged.

"Peace. Freedom. Justice. I might be their Devil, but I can be your Messiah. Help me help you."

She reached out a hand and touched Kenta on the shoulder- with her other hand she traced shapes on his broad chest.

"Come on Kenta, would you let a little girl like me go and fight _Yama_ all by myself?"

The young man hissed.

Cheng Yen knew the former Yakuza member struggled with containing his lustful desires during his novice years. It took many years for him to adjust to celibacy.

The girl...no...the demon...was very dangerous. The glint in her eyes told Cheng Yen that she knew exactly what she was doing.

"Yama was it? The Dharmapala? The Lord of the Underworld?"

"Yes. Thousands languish in the sadistic mockery of hell that the Bodhisattva Supreme has set up. Including my mother."

Hsin-yun stood up excitedly.

"And you know how to defeat Yama?"

The girl smirked and grinned. Her grin was too wide and she had too many mouths. Cheng Yen tried not to show her terror at the display of inhumanity.

"I know his true form. I know which dimension he resides in. But I need firepower. I need you, Kenta."

The Dragon King of the Eastern Sea looked at Cheng Yen, as if asking for permission from his teacher.

The Seventy-Three year old Dharma Master had grave doubts about letting her protege run off with a young woman of dubious morals and humanity, however the chance to liberate the poor souls languishing in the false hells was too great an opportunity to give up.

She gave Kenta a nod and he nodded back. Turning back to the Devil, Kenta uncrossed his arms and glared at the girl.

"Alright. I'll bite. But if you screw with me-"

"-I certainly won't do that with a monk and a man who could be my father. Don't worry sir."

She winked at him.

Kenta snapped his mouth shut with a growl.

Cheng Yen was not comfortable with this _at all._

And yet...perhaps this was destiny.

She remembered one night many years ago, when Kenta was still a novice and had yet to take his vows.

 **2002 Taiwan Special Culture Zone**

She spoke in Japanese, by the candle light.

"There is this story about karma. The full story is a lot more complicated and involve multiple lifetimes, however, we'll talk about only two of those lifetimes."

Kenta listened attentively.

"There was a man who was away on business. He traveled to another city and he met a Zen Master there. The Monk told him, 'Mister, you should not go home tonight. Stay at my temple.'

"Obviously, the man was confused and he asked the Monk, 'Why shouldn't I go home tonight, my wife is waiting for me.'

"The monk told him, 'Sir, if you go home tonight, you may generate tremendous amounts of negative karma by murdering two people.'

"Shocked and not a little horrified, the businessman agreed to stay the night. The Zen Master then explained to him the reasoning behind his intervention.

'Tonight, a young traveler will seek room and board at your home. Your wife, being generous and kind hearted will agree. However, the two of them, due to uncontrollable mutual attraction, will have an affair. A one night stand.'

"The business man was outraged and was ready to rush home then and there, however the monk continued his explanation.

'Stop. This is because of karma. Let me explain. In a previous life, your wife was a corpse that drifted down the river naked. Three men saw the corpse. The first man did nothing. The second man pulled her to shore and covered her body with a cloak to provide some dignity for the corpse. The third man buried her and performed funerary rites for her. All of these actions created karma.'

"He explained that, 'Your wife was the corpse. The traveler making love to her right now is the man who covered her body with a blanket. And you were the man that buried her and gave her funerary rites. In order to return the kindness, she married you in this life and she gave the other man one night of passion. This is what we call good karma. The man who saw her corpse and did nothing accrued neither positive nor negative karma."

"The Businessman was confused and said, 'If this was good karma, why did she cheat on me? Why did the two of them do something like this?'

"The Monk explained, 'Karma is neither good nor bad. It's just action. Certainly with free will, neither your wife nor the traveler needed to act upon their karmic affinities, but because they do not know the dharma nor are they especially aware of their subconscious impulses driven by karma, they cannot deviate very far from their karmic destinies. Ironically, this good karma begat bad karma. Because now the Traveler and your Wife will both be driven by guilt. Your wife, if she cannot come to grips with this infidelity will most certainly take her own life. You must be understanding and be kind in your confrontation with her when you return home.'

"The Businessman was silent as he pondered this.

'And why did you stop me from going home and stopping this karmic destiny from occurring? I could have stopped them!'

"The Zen Master shook his head, 'I saw your future. You would have, driven by jealousy and fury, murdered both of them in a moment of passion because you would not understand the karmic cause and effect behind the actions of your wife. Now that I have explained it to you, perhaps you will approach this situation more rationally and avoid making new karma, both good and bad.'

"And that was the cause and effect story of the _One Night Stand_."

Cheng Yen finished her story and looked over at Kenta.

"Do you understand what I mean?"

Kenta hesitated, then spoke up.

"Do you mean to say that many attractions to different women are a result of my karmic affinities with them in past lives?"

"Yes. It is no accident that you constantly find yourself in amorous situations. The key, Kenta, is to know that you have the _freedom_ to defy your karmic conditioning. You had a bad home life, you became a gangster, you were rejected by Bruce Lee, you picked up bad habits and personality traits. All of this is your karma. Yet, you choose to be here, learning the Dharma from me because doubtlessly you also have affinities with the Buddhas and with the Dharma. So the question then is, are you _willing_ to fight against your own mind and body to show that your spirit is yet stronger?"

Kenta was silent, but he stood up.

"Let me think about it."

"Take your time. Taking the ordination vows is no small thing and it cannot be easily revoked. It's a big decision, Kenta."

As he moved to leave however, Cheng Yen spoke up again.

"It is clear to me however, that you haven't met your strongest affinity yet. That will be your greatest challenge if you have strong karmic attachments to many people and events."

"My strongest affinity?"

"Yes. Perhaps she will be a woman you truly love. Someone who in another life, meant so much to you that your karma will refused to be denied. Or perhaps it shall be a great enemy, someone who you hate so much you will be compelled to break the precepts and try and kill him. Or they could be the same person. We never know what kind of karmic affinities we have with people. So it is best to be prudent."

Kenta scoffed.

"That person doesn't exist."

Cheng Yen shook her head.

"Mara will use that against you."

"I am not worthy of Mara's tests. I doubt I will attract his attention."

"That's what they all say, Kenta. Mara tested me years ago, and I almost failed then."

Kenta gripped the door frame.

"I am not you, Master. I am a thug and a brute. I am not a saintly and noble person who sacrificed everything for others like you. Mara won't test me."

He left.

Cheng Yen sighed.

 _Kenta...if you only knew how rare it is for a white elephant to be born in a garbage dump. If you only know how miraculous it is for a thug and a brute to find the right path and walk to where you are now. There is nothing unworthy about you._

A/N: In this AU, most people spoke Hokkien in Taiwan, not Mandarin. In the real world, Taiwan was a Japanese Colony and at the end of WWII, most Taiwanese people spoke only two languages, Hokkien and Japanese. The Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist) introduced Mandarin to the island, making it mandatory and in fact, people who spoke Hokkien or Japanese were forced to wear a sign around their necks in public with the words, 'I was bad'. The Sinicization of Taiwan was an incredibly brutal process, punctuated by over 30 years of martial law. In this AU, the KMT never got to settle onto the island for very long, indeed in OTL, the KMT lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and moved to Taiwan permanently only after that. The New Dharmic Authorities took over Taiwan and due to its rich multicultural history and positive inclination towards Buddhism, made it a Special Culture Zone. This means that Shintoism survived in Taiwan (prevalent amongst Japanese and older Taiwanese), albeit as a minor religion next to Christianity (prevalent amongst aboriginals). Other Special Culture Zones, like Israel, will be explored later.

Dharma Master Cheng Yen (the mother Teresa of Asia) and Hsin-yun (leader of Fo-Guang-Shan international) are real Buddhist figures who are the pioneers of Buddhist Humanism.

Kenta is the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea. Andrew Richter/Tess Teresa Richter is the Dragon King of the Northern Sea. Just to clarify.

* * *

 **2.6**

 **2011 Brockton Bay**

"No, absolutely not!"

Danny Hebert shot down the proposal as soon as he heard it. He wasn't stupid.

Brad growled.

"Danny, this could be our chance!"

Father Richelieu laughed in an ironic tone.

"Our chance? Listen to yourself Brad. A good Catholic wants to support terrorism? Have you no shame!"

"The Vatican voted to go on a crusade. Have you not heard? The Lord himself command us to war!'

Daniel stood up, clothed in white and a red cap atop of his head. He looked every inch the cardinal, but right now his Dockworker Union's experienced leaked through in spades.

"I can't believe the Holy See fell for the lies of Satan! Don't you see? The New Dharma clearly engineered this entire situation to try and trick us into attacking. They just wanted an excuse, _any_ excuse, to screw us over."

Brad growled, "It's no lie. How dare you defy the Pope!"

"The Pope is dead."

"Murdered by the Pagan heathens!"

"So they want us to believe. I know _my_ orders from the Pope. The New Church must do everything they can to survive. Becoming terrorists does not bode well for the survival of the Church."

Richelieu nodded and turned towards Brad.

"Begone Brad. Go back to your KKK friends."

Brad snarled hatefully and stomped away, slamming the door shut on his way out.

There was silence.

Richelieu turned back to Danny.

"Your Eminence, while I agree that joining the KKK to launch a major terrorist attack is a terrible idea, should we inform the authorities of what the Klan is planning?"

Daniel sighed.

"That's hard to say. The authorities might blame _us_ for it. They'll be looking for opportunities to lump us and the terrorists together. Even if we step up and tip the police off is no guarantee they'll let us off the hook."

"But if we _don't_ tell them, wouldn't they be even more justified in assuming that we're supporting the terrorists?"

Daniel conceded the point with a nod, but also countered with another argument.

"You forget my friend that right now, they don't know that the New Church exists. We're a secret organization. We will survive."

The other priest scoffed.

"Not if Brad and his people get caught and spill the beans on us."

And therein lie the crux of the matter.

Richelieu hesitated, then spoke up again.

"In these extraordinary times, if you so wish it, I will arrange for Brad and anyone else associated with our Church to have an accident."

There was a damning pause before Daniel shook his head.

"No. We'll not risk our immortal souls to extend this temporal life. If we die, we die. Let what come be the will of God."

Richelieu took in a deep breath and quoted scripture.

"For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."

Daniel nodded.

"Romans 14:8. Well said. Father Richelieu, call the flock. I will be instructing our people to steer clear of the radicals. We will take no part in this Devil's scheme."

"As you will, your Eminence."

"Amen and Godspeed."

"Amen."

Daniel picked up the frame and gaze upon the picture of Annette and a younger Taylor standing next to him when his head was a little less grey and a little more full.

He choked back a sudden and inexplicable stab of pain and sorrow.

"Why….why did this happen? Where did I go wrong, oh God, where?"

To say that his faith was shaken was an understatement. He was never really a devoted Catholic, although he did his best to help others. He knew the theology well, but never aspired to do much. He had a wife and family and the Priesthood was not the path God intended for him.

When Annette died in that freak car accident, he became a broken man. Taylor gave some meaningless platitudes about karma and overcoming trial to become spiritually stronger, however it sounded as even his daughter didn't really believe what she was saying.

They drifted apart. Their every interaction felt like a farce. Daniel felt like he was following a script- the script that society say that a good father should follow, but inside he felt like _Hell._

Daniel turned back to Christianity. He turned back to God. He read and read. He went to Church. He talked to Richelieu.

Nothing changed. His soul was still damaged.

And yet somehow God saved him.

Somehow, God did. A miracle.

He did not know how, or why. On a whim, he decided to fully devote himself to God. Ironically, it was after reading a story about Buddhist Bodhisattvas and their willingness to and do the impossible: to devote themselves to save all beings, to remove the pain and sorrow of all sentient beings.

He found himself speaking the vow, but redirected towards God. A pledge to God.

And he was reborn. And the very next day, he called Richelieu and asked to be ordained.

He implemented small parts of God's teaching in his life. He managed to actually reconnect with his daughter. God helped him reconnect to his daughter, and his daughter saved him.

 _Agape_ , He remembered thinking. Agape was the love of God for Man, and Man's love for their fellow Man, and Man's love to God. It was a tripartite force that defined true unconditional love. A way for ordinary human beings to, for even a moment, eclipse the love that Christ died for.

That love saved him. And it is that love that he devoted himself to.

While his daughter bravely struck out on her to try and piece back her own life and faith, he devoted himself to helping refugees and immigrants. He preached and worked with a zealousness that frightened his fellow priests.

Daniel's zeal was not the fiery fanaticism of dogma, but the steady warmth of love. His devotion, his life- it was like every cell, every part of him lived and breathed.

Yes, things were dire for Christendom and mankind, and yet he tried his best.

He didn't even dislike the New Dharma. He saw in many of the Dharmic teachings reflection of Christ's teachings. Where possible, he tried and established positive relationships to the local religions- something that some of the other priests did not like.

Because of his work and because of his connections to the Dharmic faiths, Brockton Bay and Boston and other nearby cities in the Eastern Seaboard became a great success.

Aside from Rome, the Eastern Seaboard was perhaps the greatest refuge for Christians. And it was all thanks to Danny.

His promotion in secular missionary positions was rapid.

Thus it was no surprise that the Pope chose him to be Cardinal- to lead the New Church initiative. To ensure the survival of Christianity should the worst happen.

And the worst was happening right now.

Daniel's faith was once more called into question. Not only was Christianity itself on the brink of extinction, but at the same time, as if God was testing him, his daughter disappeared as well. Possibly abducted by assailants unknown.

Given the terrible timing of everything, Daniel was secretly convinced that Satan himself had spirited Taylor away.

"We live in the time of Judgement. God, I will do my best, all I ask of you is that you keep Taylor safe."

He knelt and prayed before the image of his wife and daughter.

"For you, and for all of us, I commit to the path of peace. I shall not raise my hand in violence against the horrors of this world."

And he never did. And he never will.

Because Daniel knew, that only love could save them all.

"They're starting to march."

The news broadcast was like something out of his worst nightmares. Daniel watched with grim silence as the coned masks of the KKK legions numbering in the thousands marched down the main streets of every city.

There was no signs and no ideology. Their intent was clear enough. Each member carried rifles and even spears.

Several newsfeeds show temples on fire. Some eager terrorists already started, likely radicals that were not directly affiliated with the KKK.

Armoured SWAT was pushing back. Molotov cocktails were thrown by thugs. Suicide bombings were being reported around the entire Country as every radical cell and Church join in rebellion.

This was a war.

Richelieu was praying, but then he suddenly pointed.

"That's Brad's group."

They did not wear the coned mask and robes. They were dressed as Catholics, their face proud for the world to see.

Some of their members were black and hispanic and Asian.

The KKK were a lot more lenient these days, by necessity and they freely work with other races as long they're Christian and American and united against the interlopers. Nonetheless, minorities steer clear of the KKK and as a result, they were all marching with Brad's group of radical Christians.

"Well," Danny said dryly, "That's going to taint our reputation somewhat."

"It's already tainted your Eminence, Rome is in open rebellion right _now_. People are saying all Christian should die. I am not sure why Vairocana hasn't burned the Vatican yet, but this KKK riot is just a part of the entire crusade. It's all happening right now."

Another priest ran into the room panting.

"Your Eminence!"

The Cardinal stood up from his seat and turned to the man.

"Are our people gathered in the storm drains?"

"Yes. They are ready to hear you speak."

Daniel nodded and steeled his heart.

"We shall pray. We shall pray for every soul and hope that innocents do not die."

He marched towards destiny and the other two priest fell in line behind him, heart filled with faith and zeal.

Like Moses before Pharaoh, or Abraham preparing to sacrificing his only beloved son, Daniel Hebert surrendered himself entirely to God.

In the storm drains, hundreds of Catholics gathered, huddled together.

He knew that outside, in warehouses and in the docks itself gathered thousands more.

Speakers wired together by the more tech savvy members of the Dockworkers.

Several police officers could be seen wandering the perimetres, no doubt expecting violence.

 _No doubt they think us Christians to be terrorists, all waiting to rise up and join the radicals. Well, they will be disappointed._

Daniel stepped up towards the microphone in front of him and the crowd in front of him, many with their feet submerged in the underground river stood at attention.

Fathers cradled their family and mothers their children. Young man and old man, white, black, yellow and more stood shoulder to shoulder.

Daniel spoke. He did not speak of politics. Or of action. There was enough of that this day.

He did not speak of the Church or of the Vatican or of which belief was right or wrong.

He did not denounce the terrorists nor the New Dharma, for there was enough of that already.

He did not speak of prophecies or conspiracy or pray for the Messiah to save them all.

Instead, Daniel Hebert, husband, father and now shepherd spoke of the only thing he ever really learned in these few short years of devotion to the Lord.

He spoke of love.

"If I speak in the languages of humans and angels but have no love, I have become a reverberating gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing. Even if I give away everything that I have and sacrifice myself, but have no love, I gain nothing.

Love is always patient;

love is always kind;

love is never envious

or arrogant with pride.

Nor is she conceited,

and she is never rude;

she never thinks just of herself

or ever gets annoyed.

She never is resentful;

is never glad with sin;

she's always glad to side with truth,

and pleased that truth will win.

She bears up under everything;

believes the best in all;

there is no limit to her hope,

and never will she fall.

Love never fails. Now if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete. But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will be done away with.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways. Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Daniel paused and tried to control his breathing. His words had rang from warehouse to warehouse, drain to drain. Catholics at home heard his voice on the special frequency they use for their radios.

Policemen stood stunned at the unexpected message.

"These very words were uttered by Saint Paul of Tarsus centuries ago. He who saw Jesus only once, repented and vowed to travel far and wide to spread the gospel. He died a martyr and he never hesitated. He knew the truth and he _went_ and he _did it_."

Daniel gripped the microphone in front of him as if it was the physical representation of his faith. His knuckles turned white.

"Christians for centuries have professed to have faith, but lived their life in sin, in ignorance of God's truth. They gossip about their neighbours, committed atrocities against their fellow men and refused to love all without condition, without judgement. We have made many mistakes, but the greatest mistake we could have made was to assume that God would have welcome us although we did nothing to do his work. We live in _comfort_ and _normality_ as if we were not the servants of the Lord and the disciples of Christ. Did not Christ say, _Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect._ Christ set that standard. We are to be like God, and to be possessed of all of his love and compassion and _will!"_

He roared into the microphone and several of the rapt audience flinched.

"Our comfortable life is at an end. The destruction of the world is at hand, slowly, humanity tears itself apart, regardless of what religion we are."

His voice became gentler.

"The time for games is over. Like our early Christians, we are now, one in all, _Apostles_. Spread the good word, do the good deeds. The world was not Christian once upon a time, and yet somehow, we made it Christian. The world is not Christian right now, but we _will make it Christian again!_

Daniel raised both arms and shouted to God on his Throne.

"It is not what we do, but what we _become_. Jesus died for our sins, now let us live for Jesus and for all of mankind!"

There was a roar as the audience cheered and steeled their hearts.

No prayer was necessary.

No vow was necessary.

In their heart of hearts, every men, women and child walked in the footstep of Christ.

And then there was a thundering _CRACK_.

John Miller was a simple salaryman. He worked as a police, but he was just after the pay. He had not religious affiliation although he pays lip service to the freakish Buddhists and their monsters in the sky.

He did not really understood what the speakers wired up around the place was saying. Lots of stupid Bible stuff he wasn't interested in.

He knew that the fucking KKK- the racist fucks that they were, was marching and starting fires and making his life difficult.

He kept an eye out for a particular burly man that was near his position. He had tattoos and was holding what looked like a weapon. It was hard to tell in the evening light.

He worried about his girlfriend and his two kids at home and whether they were caught in the violence. He wanted to go home and protect them, but instead he has to be here to see what the hell these Christian fools were up to rallying at the docks.

So when he saw the crowd suddenly roared in triumph and the glint of metal in the dark sky, reflecting street lights, he reacted on instinct and shot the thug he was keeping an eye on.

That was a mistake. The crowd reacted with shock, but not violence. They as one turned their eyes upon him. Several rushed to help the downed man.

But at the same moment, the crack of gunshot resounded throughout the docks and the other policemen reacted to the sound with ingrained instinct.

They opened fire.

"Danny! They're shooting the people on the docks! Some of us are fighting back!"

Daniel Hebert cursed and roared into the microphone.

"Run! Run for your lives. But don't take revenge. Don't fight. Disperse. Spread far and wide. Hide amongst the pagans. Do whatever you need to survive."

He breathed in deeply, and uttered the most important command.

"And remember that only love remains after all else is lost. Amen!"

Lights flooded the storm drains as armoured police began to pour into the sewers.

One of the SWAT shouted angrily.

"Kill the fucking terrorists! Kill them all! Protect our city!"

Another SWAT tried to stop them.

"Wait don't! We were ordered not to escalate!"

He was ignored as the other police, tired and angry from the rioting in the streets opened fire on what they thought was terrorists.

But there was only families. There was only civilians. Daniel saw all of this and understood all of this, but there was nothing he could do.

He felt Richelieu grabbed him and pulled to a nearby exit.

"Come on Danny, let's go!"

Christians and their families immediately dispersed, running down sewers and storm drains, splitting into dozens of groups. Danny and Richelieu joined one of these groups as they tried to escape from the massacre.

Daniel choked back a sob as he saw the small bodies of children in the dim lighting.

 _God please protect them. Please protect your people._

They were close to the ladder. There was more gunfire from above the surface. The sound like the bark of demons to Danny's ears.

A bullet tore into Danny's calves and he stumbled. People ran past him, not recognizing their cardinal in the dark and in their fear. Richelieu immediately turned around to help him up.

"Your Eminen-urghk"

Richelieu choked on his own blood as a bullet blasted a hole to the side of his neck. He stumbled and Daniel crawled up to grab the other man's cassock, tears in his eyes.

"NO!"

Richelieu only gurgled what sounded like an apology before he breathed his last.

And then suddenly the ceiling was torn away, flooding the dark sewers with street lights. The screech of cars and shouting of panicking could be heard.

"What the fuck is th-aaaagh!"

A entire SWAT team collapsed as they closed in on Danny's position, their legs crushed by some unseen force. They squealed in pain, but did not die.

Daniel looked up as shadow blocked the light.

And he gaped in awe.

An Alabaster Angel floated above him as the streets crumbled, exposing the storm drain to the surface. Brilliant light glinted off her feminine form and her four wings covered her modesty.

Around Danny, people drop to their knees to pray.

The Angel spoke, and she spoke with Taylor's voice.

"Be not afraid, Daniel Joshua Hebert."

Chunks of rubble rose and began to circle the white Angel as her wings spread open to review her naked form. A blade of fire appeared in the Angel's hand and she roared.

"I am Jophiel, _the Beauty of God_."

[MEDIA=youtube]fS2GQQgzM6k[/MEDIA]

 **2011 An Alternate Earth**

Dinah Alcott breathed steadily in Taylor's hands.

"Dinah. Jophiel. It's funny that 'Dina' is another name of Jophiel in the pseudograph, _Life of Adam and Eve_. You're an Angel now. Protect my father."

Taylor picked the girl up and slung her over her shoulders.

The dragon-like Kenta roared as he slashed away another screaming demon- this one made of metal bands surrounding a flaming skeleton.

"Mara, we're getting swarmed here!"

"Just so. It's time to move!"

Taylor felt Mara's powers boiling in her blood and space warped around them.

A tear in space opened up.

Mara's spectre as usual, stood next to Taylor, visible only to her.

"The connection is getting stronger, I can open portals more easily now. Your mother is near."

Taylor jumped through the portal. Kenta hurried after them after blasting back two demons that tried to bite him.

Taylor panted as she carried the preteen over a particular rocky plateau.

"How are you still accessing my mother's powers? I thought I was the host now?"

Mara shook his head.

"I left some of myself back with her, not enough to form a manifestation, but enough to hijack her Shard. Just as I have infected Dinah's Shard with some of me."

They jumped through another portal and landed in a grey world.

Mara grinned.

"Found it."

In the distance, the giant form of Yama suddenly spun around and hissed.

Kenta growled in fear.

"He's looking at us."

Taylor nodded, "So he is."

She put Dinah down and whispered to Mara.

"Do you know where Yama's controller is?"

"No. We're deep in his realm and he knew we were coming several Hell-Worlds' ago. We took Dinah by surprise, but it won't happen again."

Dinah moaned and Taylor patted her on the head gently.

"Keep dreaming sweet Angel. We're going to send you backup soon."

Kenta chuckled despite the dire situation they were in.

"To think that _Hayagriva_ was being controlled by a little girl. Granted, we subverted her before Hayagriva could show up to stop us. Still….I am shocked that the Dharmapalas have human controllers at all."

Mara snorted and through Taylor, he spoke to Kenta.

"The Bodhisattva Supreme in past cycles kept her Dharmapala terror drones to herself, but due to my efforts at infecting everything connected to her, she was forced to decentralize the Shards controlling the Dharmapalas in order to protect herself. If Dinah's shard was connected to the Bodhisattva right now, we would've _won._ Unfortunately, we'll have to do this the slow way."

Yama spread out his arms and began to fly towards them.

"Get ready Kenta. Go and show the Lord of the Underworld who's the stronger god!"

Kenta gave a earthshaking roar and charged towards the Dharmapala, more scales erupting from his naked back as his speed doubled.

Taylor nodded to Mara.

"Okay, Mara. Start _hacking_. I want to know where Yama's controller is hiding."

There was a pause and Taylor spoke up.

"And if you can spare the power, try to find my mother."

Mara grinned.

"She already knows. Now that we're in the same dimension and time plane, there is no lag as I am running off both of your Shards at once."

Taylor quirked an eyebrow.

"Does that explain why you're so much calmer now?"

The Devil looked embarrassed.

"Yeah, Annette is a lot less anger driven than you are. She has a stabilizing influence on me...well I am a combined simulation of the two you after all. No offense, Taylor."

"Non-taken."

They watched as the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea and the King of Hell smashed into each other with a sonic boom and a heat wave that scorched the skyline of the time frozen Brockton Bay.

* * *

 **2.7**

 _"I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end."_

 _\- Daniel 6:26_

 **2011 Brockton Bay**

The God of Daniel was powerful indeed.

The Archangel Jophiel was a terror to behold. She glowed brilliant white in the dark of night, ensuring none of Brockton Bay dared ignore her presence.

She towered twice as tall over each and every man, looking down at them, judging them.

Beneath her feet and protected from stray bullets and glass shards by her luminous wings, strode Cardinal Hebert, using a metal pipe as a crutch as he dragged his wounded and useless legs along the ground. He was supported by a teenaged girl whose face was tainted by the stains of blood. Her eyes were determined however as she did her best to help her Cardinal move forward.

Daniel grunted with pain with every step, but he did not falter. His face was a rictus of righteousness. Behind him marched thousands of Christians who raised their hands in prayer.

The KKK legions and rioters cheered when they saw her form floated down the main street where the fighting was heaviest. SWAT police backed away fearfully.

Daniel raise a hand and dropped his impromptu walking stick. He stumbled, but was held up by the shoulder of his female aide.

"Stop. In the name of God. _Stop._ "

A crusader ignored his plead and raised a rifle. He aimed at the police.

Jophiel swung her blade of fire and it extended to become a great wave of inferno wrath.

The fire swept the streets, funnelling into each of the four directions, consuming entire blocks as people screamed in terror.

And then there was an astounding silence as if the Earth had stopped moving.

[MEDIA=youtube]-mC3WQrPkX4[/MEDIA]

Thousands of naked rioters, crusaders, policemen and women stood in the streets, gaping and shocked. All of their clothes were burned away. All of their weapons turned to ash.

They were alive and unharmed and as naked as the day the Lord God created Adam Kadmon from the dust of the Edenic World.

Several dropped to their knees to pray. Many more were shell-shocked at their almost death.

Jophiel slowly drifted down until her bare foot touched the pavement. The flaming sword vanished and the Angel stepped forth and spread her arms.

She began to sing, her voice loud and firm, echoing from block to block, eardrum to eardrum. Her voice although like that of a young mortal woman, rang within the hearts and minds of every soul in Brockton Bay.

 _Alleluia…_

Gene Shakti dropped to her knees and prayed when the white angel began to sing. In her mind's eyes she saw the flaming phoenix rose from behind the angel like the dawning sun.

Love filled her soul until it overflowed and she sang along, somehow knowing every beat and every word despite never having sung a hymn before in her life. Despite never having done a Gregorian chant. Despite never ever learning to speak Latin.

 _Dies sanctificatus illuxit nobis:_

A day made holy dawns upon us;

 _Venite gentes, et adorate Dominum._

O come, all nations, and adore the Lord;

 _Quia hodie descendit lux magna in terris/super omnem terram._

for today a great light has descended upon earth/on all the earth.

 _Alleluia!_

Hallelujah!

 _Haec dies quam fecit Dominus:_

This is the day the Lord has made;

 _Exultemus, et laetemur in ea._

let us be glad and rejoice in it.

The flames of the phoenix washed over her and she was baptized with Fire and the Holy Spirit.

 **2011 ?**

[MEDIA=youtube]7whegFR6Lz0[/MEDIA]

"God, is an ideal. A state of being." Taylor declared with absolute certainty as she stared out over the red dunes of _Sha_.

"So God is. But You can't prove that God is only an idea," _Shirk-Trek-Motauch'cha_ snapped his beak like mouth in annoyance and then continued. He raised a spindly arm and swept it out towards the Dune, the oasis, the violet sky and the dancing Jell-bugs circling under holy Xau'tum.

"Taylor Mara, none can fathom God. None can prove God exist by physical means because She is _entirely other_. And yet we _know_ that She exists. God works in mysterious ways, as many many species are wont to say throughout the innumerable epochs."

Taylor scoffed.

"The same God that allowed your religion to be subverted and then your home planet and its parallel counterparts to be destroyed?"

The alien had a ready reply.

"The evils of mortals are made by mortals. We are directly responsible for the consequences of our actions good or bad."

"An omnipotent God who allows evil to exist is a morally corrupt God, Motauch'cha Mara."

Motauch'cha snorted and glared at Taylor with his black eyes.

"Taylor Mara, you of all people, know the answer to the _question of evil_. God did not intend evil to exist, but She always intended Free Will to exist. If God could make it so that we were incapable of evil, then we would not have Free Will and the universe would be entirely out of order."

He skidded down the Dunes and Taylor followed, her feet dancing above the grains of sand.

"God is righteous. God acts in accordance to her nature. God is unchanging. None can question what God has done because what God has done is entirely in accordance to the natural way of the cosmos. Even our Free Will is but a part of this greater order of things. The Big Bang all the way to our great conflict with the False One today is part of this great journey. God has set forth a _way_ and we defy that way with our ignorance and arrogance."

Taylor fumed silently.

"Maybe I don't want to believe in God, or Adi-Buddha or Para-Brahman or whatever form or name it is called by sentient beings."

"Deep down inside, you know that you believe. Mara rarely chooses an atheistic host, only a true believer would have the _zeal_ to resist the lies of the False One."

"He makes us commit so many sins."

Motauch'cha was silent and then he nodded.

"So he does."

The alien pointed at a mound in the sands, it was about a foot high, a dimple in the otherwise empty wasteland that was _Sha._

Taylor poked at it.

"What is it?"

"A Nest."

Motauch'cha carefully brushed away parts of the mound and revealed the giant Beetle-like creatures squirming inside. Their tiny beaks snapped hungrily.

"Graaawwwr!"

Taylor picked one up and one of it's tiny dozen legs kicked at her wrist although it was too weak to puncture her skin.

"What is this creature?"

"That is my daughter. Shirk-Trek-Jogqolrui. She died when the Purifiers had her and her entire family killed for believing in doctrines outside of those taught by the False One."

Taylor nodded sadly and place the baby back in the nest.

"Where was your wife?"

Motauch'cha laughed, "Oh Taylor, that is silly of you. We _Ho_ ' _Shars_ do not have such things. The females lay their eggs in the sands, and the males- maybe one out of every ten thousand females are males- go and fertilize the eggs. We are unable to resist fertilizing egg mounds."

"That is...interesting. So men don't do much child rearing huh?"

"No, we are driven by wanderlust and did not contribute much to our culture. The females are cooperative and were the founders of our civilization. All of our Prophets were female and our God, although genderless, was most readily identified as feminine."

He paused.

"When the False One came, She pretended to be our God. She played to our fears and expectations, even those that were contrary to the commandments of love and compassion that our God taught us."

He looked at his seven fingered hand.

"When the time came for a Devil-figure to rise, it was only natural for Mara to choose from amongst the males. What was more evil than a _man_ that dared defied the hierarchy of the female God and her chosen priestesses? I fulfilled that role perfectly."

Taylor watched the red glow of Xau'tum sink below the horizon, casting the desert in a crimson shadow and making the dunes dance. The Jell-bugs began to glow and the starlight grew brighter.

"Did you think your God forgived you for all that you have done to fight back against the False One?"

Motauch'cha bowed his head.

"I am only a memory, so I cannot know how God had judged the soul of my real self. I killed other males and fertilized nests that were meant for them. I saturated the genes of my species with my own, creating a severe genetic bottleneck. When the new generation of females matured and became priestesses, they had a severe negative reaction to fighting me because they could smell our genetic kinship."

He gave a wry smile.

" _Honour thy fathers_ was actually a commandment. Female _Ho'Shars_ are forbidden from killing their fathers. It is one of the oldest laws, and is actually a genetically ingrained instinct- likely evolved because of the extreme scarcity of males. I used that to my advantage and slaughtered my own children wholesale when the False One sent them after me."

Taylor didn't ask if he had won. Of course he lost, that's why Taylor was the current Mara.

"It was nice talking to you Taylor Mara. I hope I was able to quell some of your doubts about your role."

"With ten thousand lifetimes to debate against me, I don't think I'll be able to win arguments against the shades of my past incarnations."

She paused and then asked her last question.

"One more thing. Since God failed to save your species, how do you think your people will find salvation? Do they go to Heaven?"

"There was the great egg-sac from whence all of our spirits came from. However, to return there, we would need to find _enlightenment_. Since my entire species became extinct, I am uncertain how that would ever happen. But-"

He smiled at her.

"Maybe we reincarnated amongst _your_ people. Maybe God give us chance after chance each time we fail. If you can save us all, maybe we'll have a chance this time, no? God is merciful after all."

Taylor bowed to her predecessor and Motauch'cha bowed back.

And then reality faded away and Taylor opened her eyes to find herself standing in front of a Catholic Priest who blinked and looked up, noticing the intruder in his chapel for the first time.

"Yes, can I help you?"

CRACK.

Taylor shot him with her pistol. Then she dragged his corpse by the leg and push his stiff body up against the wall and proceeded to systematically crucify his limbs to the wall with steel spikes she had packed for the occasion.

 _The path to Hell is paved with good intentions._

She turned and looked at the statue of Jesus on the altar and Mother Mary in the corner.

And she prayed.

 _Jesus...God...Buddha...or whatever. If I win...please save my soul. Don't let me lose myself to darkness._

The Devil in her blood seemed to gurgle angrily at the very suggestion.

"I won't damn you Taylor. Never you. I am the bringer of hope."

Taylor looked at Mara who had gripped her shoulder with his gangrene hand and into his smouldering eyes of utter hatred. And pushed his hand off of her shoulder.

"No. I am pretty sure I am damning myself. I am doing this to save my mother and my planet. I don't give a fuck about _your_ vendetta."

Mara hissed.

"It doesn't matter. I will wring that bitch's skinny neck with my own two hands."

"Well it'll be my hand doing the wringing, so listen to my orders."

Mara scoffed and turned back to the dead priest whose blood was now pooling beneath the wall.

"Hey Taylor, use some of that blood and write some passages from the Pali Canon around the chapel floor. That'll piss off the Christians for sure."

Taylor ignored the Devil and continued working.

Her gaze wandered over the statues of the Twelve Apostles and several other Saints. She wondered aloud.

"I wonder if I will be remembered as a Saint or a Devil?"

Mara was silent. He too did not know the answer to that, because in every cycle they had failed to ensure that there was anyone left alive to record that history.

* * *

 **2.8**

"If there are monks, nuns, laymen, laywomen, pure youth and maidens who wish to recite and hold this mantra, they should first arouse their great merciful and compassionate hearts for all living beings, and follow me, _Avalokitesvara_ , in making these vows:

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I quickly know all Dharmas;

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I soon obtain the Wisdom Eye;

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I quickly ferry all living beings

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I soon obtain virtuous skillful means

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I quickly board the Prajna Boat;

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I soon transcend the ocean of suffering;

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I quickly achieve precepts, Samadhi and the Way;

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I soon ascend the mountain of Nirvana;

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I quickly dwell in the house of non-action;

Namo great compassionate Avalokitesvara, May I soon unite with the Dharma-Nature Body.

If I go towards the mountain of knives, the mountain of knives of itself breaks up;

If I go towards the boiling oil, the boiling oil of itself dries up;

If I go towards the hells, the hells of themselves disappear;

If I go towards the hungry ghosts, the hungry ghosts of themselves become full.

If I go towards the Asuras, their evil thoughts of themselves are tamed.

If I go towards the animals, they themselves attain great wisdom.

After making these vows, recite my name (Namo Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva) with the deep-felt sincere heart, also recite single-mindedly the name of my teacher - Amitabha Tathagata (Namo Amitabha), then recite this mantra, 5 times or more in a day, to remove from the body the weighty sins of births and deaths accumulated in hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas."

\- Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva expounding the Great Compassion Mantra

[MEDIA=youtube]WDYQpvHkFs8[/MEDIA]

Kenta swung Yama over his shoulders and into the grey Medhall building, crushing it flat. He beat his naked chest and roared, the sound was deafening and like that of a primal beast out of the ancient eons.

Yama tried to warp time around his arm, but they were already in a space outside of time itself and that afforded Kenta some immunity. As scales withered and died when they came into contact with the warped time-space, he immediately regenerated the damaged parts.

 _Not how time works, from what I have read, but damned if I know how these false-dharmapalas manage their Iddhis._

Unleashing a fireball he blasted Yama back further into the ground. Scorched concrete and melting steel exploded around him, splattering the surroundings with debris.

Yama raised one of his arms and the vajra clutched in his hand flashed brilliantly as sparks of purple energy tore both of Kenta's legs off, causing a geyser of red blood to flood the streets.

Roaring in pain, the titanic dragon collapsed and began to crawl away as Yama floated back up to a standing position.

Purple energy tore chunks of asphalt off of the ground beside Kenta as he crawled away at a ridiculously fast speed, becoming a two-limbed serpent using his arms to pull himself ahead of the angry Dharmapala.

 _And here we go again. From Dragon to Lindworm. How humiliating._

Six new organs erupted from Kenta's silver back. It wasn't wings. It was better.

Kenta leapt into the air and flew away towards the sky, his serpentine tail trailing behind him as he twisted and curled.

 _Hydrokinetic Bladders. I don't even understand how this works, but it does._

His hydrokinetic bladders were tumors along his back that were highly reactive to moisture, steam, rain or water. When in contact with those elements, the bladders allowed him to 'glide' along any kind of gaseous or liquid water effectively allowing him to fly and swim like a fish.

Yama eyes flashed yellow and he leapt into the sky after Kenta. The two began to circle each other and Kenta suddenly shot off leaving behind a crack of ozone as his journey through the air left electric aftershocks.

Rain began to fall and stormclouds gather. A dark and terrible mist began to obfuscate the sky of Brockton Bay.

Yama slashed with one of his arms at the speed of sound and it cleared the air around him, but he already lost sight of the Dragon.

Out of the darkness a stream of fire exploded outwards briefly illuminating the shadow of a serpent that slithered out of sight behind the grey clouds.

The fireball burnt Yama's arms to a black charcoal- the skin flaking off to reveal newer tender flesh beneath.

Yama roared in fury.

From his left another fireball.

From his right a ball of lighting.

From above a cold mist that froze half of his body and one of his heads.

From below the mighty jaws of a titanic dragon gripped his right leg and tore it off. Divine ichor flying off into the night.

Yama thrust out the vajra and a purple blade extended from it like a sword. It impaled Kenta through the head and the Dragon roared in pain.

Kenta tore himself away from the sword and fled back into the clouds before flying up above Yama and began to circle, his now longer and more serpentine form becoming a whirlpool of scaled terror.

His legs had both regenerated, although now they were tiny in comparison to his length.

Lightning cackled and began to surged along the spinning body of the Dragon as particles began to separate themselves into positive and negative polarities.

Kenta roared in defiance even as blood flowed freely from his wounded head. He had never felt more alive. More powerful than he did now. Against ships and the occasional Monk, there was no need to escalate to this degree.

He had never really knew how far he could have gone. Now he had an inkling.

The lighting built and the sparks gathered in the eye of the storm that was Kenta and it unleashed its combined power towards in a titanic surge.

In that final moment, a couple atomic bonds separated.

The beam of controlled nuclear fury shaved off the right side of Yama's body and the Dharmapala began to fall.

He raised another arm, this one held a golden chain. He thrust the chain outwards and it flew towards Kenta.

The chain tore through Kenta's torso and out the otherside. It began to spin and wrap itself along his length even as he spinning slowed due to the weight of the chain.

As Yama fell he pulled Kenta down with him and the Dragon's careful equilibrium in the storm was interrupted.

Clouds rolled away and the rain cleared as the Dragon maintaining it was dragged down by the Lord of the Underworld.

The world beneath Yama began to flake away, opening like a giant lotus flower made of space and time.

Another dimension was revealed beneath the Grey World.

Dharmapala and Dragon fell into the other world as the world above them broke apart.

A familiar black mountain range was visible as far as the eyes could see. Each mountain was made of titanic blades of iron. Naked forms could be seen struggling to climb the mountain and cutting themselves on its serrated surface.

One of the figures slipped and was sliced in half as he passed a knife the size of a skyscraper. His guts decorated the black iron sheen of the larger mountain-blades nearby.

Yama crashed into one of the iron mountains, pulping several of the screaming clones beneath him. Kenta clawed and bit at the god who had him leashed in chains as the two shattered the mountains around them and the poor souls who languished upon them.

Kenta headbutted Yama.

And then again.

And then again.

With some pleasure, he saw that the false-Dharmapala's forehead was caved in.

Yama grabbed the Dragon by the head however and using it as a battering ram, drove Kenta's face down towards the mountain again and again.

Kenta's snout penetrated deeply into the mountains and eventually hit the ground. And then went further down as they dug into the Earth.

Kenta laughed and he unleashed a bolt of lightning at the nearby iron shards that used to be a mountain.

The conductivity of the Iron Mountains was a boon to Kenta.

Kenta was immune to electricity.

Yama wasn't.

Yama roared in pain as the entire dimension became a cage of thunder and lightning. The blue sparks and currents of electricity arcing high into the sky like a torrential tsunami of energy.

The clones that were born in this hell were mercifully all vapourized by the the raging currents, becoming black charcoal and then ash as even iron was rent asunder by the power of the storm.

The dimension began to break apart as Yama pulled them into yet another dimension.

This was a swirling miasma of boiling fire.

The two titans fell into the boiling magma.

The time looping clones of the sinners here welcomed the relief of being crushed by two dueling gods before they were reborn and boiled alive again.

Kenta crashed into Yama and struggled with him atop the greying ruins of Medhall.

Yama raised a Vajra and the purple beams tore off both of his legs.

Kenta collapsed and began to crawl away with his forelimbs, his serpentine tail trailing after him.

She pointed at the Dragon duelling the King of Hell.

"Is he aware that he was caught in that time loop for the past day or so?"

Mara turned back to answer Annette's question as they crested the hill that lead to the stretch of road where Taylor was waiting.

"He has an inkling. Time moves differently, even psychologically, for those caught in a timeloop."

Annette nodded and trudged along. Her jumpsuit was scarred and she was bleeding. But she survived and that was what was important.

A day or so ago, by her reckoning, she kind of lost track of time after the _weeks? Years?_ She had spent in the grey dimension, staying one step ahead of the starving swarm of _Pretas._

Of course, hundreds of alternate selves died horrifically. She used their failures to help her work out the best way to survive.

The different timelines began collapsing as the artificial quantum superposition state enforced by Yama broke down due to the interference of the silver dragon.

That was how Annette knew she was going to be rescued.

When the familiar form of Mara returned she sighed with happiness and hugged the imaginary person.

And then she slapped him.

"That was for saying you're going to be using Taylor."

Mara apologized. And then hurried away, guiding her out of the hell hole.

"So...who was your new host? Please don't tell me it was Taylor."

Mara was silent.

"Maraaaa."

"Will you slap me if I say it was?"

"MARAAAA!"

She began to chase after the Devil, trying to shoot him with her AK-47 (her Uzis ran out of juice ages ago).

Taylor and her version of Mara examined another crack in the space in front of them. As the grey dimension fell apart due to the time loop used by Yama on himself and Kenta, the space around them began cracking.

Between these cracks, Mara was trying to trace the flow of information back to their originator. Yama was only a construct, a projection really.

Yama's controller was hidden away, likely in another dimension, much like Dinah was. They had found Dinah in a shrine on an abandoned Earth, tended to by fiery hell-guardian-skeleton things.

The girl was currently sleeping on the ground next to Taylor as she fingered another crack.

"Careful Taylor, don't want you lose a finger cutting yourself on a shard of space-time. That would be _bad_."

Taylor hastily withdrew said member. She scowled.

"Where is he?"

Mara shrugged and examined another crack of splintering time.

"Yama controls time, so his controller is probably safely sequestered somewhere outside of time."

Taylor frowned.

"He can repeat time, so maybe his controller is kept in a perpetual time loop?"

"Yes, but where?"

Taylor recalled something and then smirked.

"No Mara, not where. _When._ "

Taylor closed her eyes and opened her senses to her power. She saw what they saw. She heard what they heard. She felt what they felt. What they smelt. What they're thinking.

The familiar pulse of thought-stuff flickered momentarily and then vanished in an instant.

Taylor began speaking.

"In Buddhism, the basic particle of time is a _Ksana_ a brief moment of time that is supposed to measure hundreds of arisings and ceasings of subconscious mind-activity. Yama's controller is hidden in the most secure and subtle place in the world. A place between one moment and the next. Between one _thought_ and the next."

She gripped onto the spark of mind that briefly appeared to her senses between the cracks in time and poured all of her power, her malice and dominance into the mind she had seized.

With a great cry she forced a grey little boy to stumble out of the moment between moments into her waiting arm. He was dressed like a schoolboy of half a century ago, from the end of the second world war.

The boy cried in fear and screamed profanities. Taylor punched him in the face, knocking him out.

Mara looked impressed.

"That boy was looping himself to stay alive and looping time around him to hide himself. It's like an intricate puzzle of time entwined within time. Like compressing data. I am almost afraid what he could do if he had more energy. Fortunately for us all, the Bodhisattva Supreme is cheap and keeps the energy she has amassed from innumerable kalpas sequestered away in her personal vault of Shards."

"Taylor!"

They were interrupted by a panting woman who crawled up the rocky grey hill they were on.

"MOM!"

The younger Hebert yelled with joy and ran to her mother and hugged her.

Annette nuzzled her daughter's head and choked back a sob.

"You're all grown up now. Oh what I must have missed!"

Taylor was crying with joy and managed to reply through her sobs.

"And you're just as young as ever Mom. Man, Dad's gonna have to rethink his vows of celibacy."

Annette pulled back and formed a T with both of her hands in the universal time-out sign.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Danny's celibate? What the _fuck_."

"It's...a long story."

The two Maras looked at each other.

And they walked into one another and merged, becoming a beautiful elven figure crowned in golden fire and framed with luscious blond locks of hair that trailed down to their waist.

Taylor looked up and gaped.

Mara bowed.

"Greetings Taylor. I am the _full_ and complete Mara."

He kissed her knuckles and his tongue trailed suggestively up her arm.

Annette kicked Mara in the shins.

"Stop trying to seduce my daughter, Mara. Have you no shame!?"

* * *

 **2.9**

 _"I am Adi Parashakti, goddess Bhuvaneshvari. I am the owner of this universe. I am the Absolute Reality. I am dynamic in feminine form and static in masculine form. You have appeared to govern the universe through my energy. You are the masculine form of Absolute Reality, while I am the feminine form of that Reality. I am beyond form, beyond everything, and all the powers of God are contained within me. You must know that I am the Eternal limitless energy."_

\- Srimad Devi Bhagwat Purana's 1st book and 4th chapter, The Devi addressing the Trimurti

 **Timeline A**

 **Present Time.**

Arya Harikiran Sriganesh tilted his head in surprise when he heard the mechanical whirl of vimanas. It was...off however. Different from the flying vehicles that usually ply the air lanes of India.

He looked up and squinted towards the Sun. From the sky, small black dots emerged and were rapidly flying towards them.

They were iron….dragons.

 _What kind of a Vimana is that?_

"Grandfather?"

Sriganesh turned towards his granddaughter Sitri and gestured towards the Temple.

"Go return to the Temple! It may not be safe."

The girl looked frightened but quickly run back towards the safety of the temple, her pink and blue sari standing out amongst the foliage.

Grandmaster Sriganesh cursed that his granddaughter was visiting him today. Those iron dragons….they looked militaristic. And dangerous.

Not something he wanted his grandchildren around.

The former Brahmin pulled out his mobile phone and dialed his son. He picked up on the first rang.

"Yes, papa? Is Sitri being troublesome again?"

"Pratyush. Come pick up your daughter. There is something amiss- I think somehow a foreign air force has invaded Dharmic Authority Airspace, I am going to travel back in time briefly and figure out what is going on."

He hung up. They were slightly estranged. When Sriganesh decided to enter the monastic life, his children had taken his decision badly. His wife was more understanding, being very religious herself, but Pratyush did not like his father very much.

For the sake of Sitri however, he does let her visit from time to time.

As the swarm of iron dragons fly towards the Delhi, Sriganesh tore open a hole in space and he waltzed through. Before he had fully stepped into the past, he saw that another him emerged from the Temple in a dead run, his face panicking.

 _I suppose I will figure out why I was in such a hurry._

 **1 Hour Ago.**

Sriganesh stepped into the past and looked around the empty courtyard. Sitri was still eating inside the Temple right now.

He walked towards the gardens and a monk named Ananda nodded at him.

"Sir, I saw you not 3 hours passed. You seemed like you were in a hurry, opening time portals left and right?"

Sriganesh frowned in concern. That seemed like a lot of wasted energy.

"Truly? Did I tell you what I was doing opening that many portals?"

"I am not sure. You were in an awful hurry and did not stop to chat."

The monk bowed and skipped a couple minutes into the past to take a nap.

Sriganesh knew of course, because 7 hours in the past, Ananda told him he was taking a nap several hours in the future.

The Temple of Repeating Time was an interesting place and very confusing for those who cannot navigate the ebb and flow of space-time.

 _What was I doing? Or rather, what will I be doing?_

 **Timeline B**

 **1 Week Ago**

Sriganesh was woken up from his sleep in the middle of the night. He opened his eyes and saw his own face. The other him was scarred and his left eye was gone.

He rasped.

"Sriganesh. Danger. Warning from the future!"

"Wait...how is this….you're changing the past? Is this a timeloop?"

The Older Sriganesh shook his head.

"No. This is an alternate timeline. Due to tachyon interference, I couldn't establish a time loop, so I punched into the adjacent potential timeline. Your universe didn't exist until I traveled here. Thanks to a couple of friends, I managed to work out an equation to cross over. Of course, the timeline I am from could only be a potential future. There's a fixed point in time where the timelines fluctuate wildly."

Sriganesh was happy that another him managed to make a breakthrough. He was also very very worried about what this means.

He sat up, his face entirely serious.

"Tell me, what happened?"

"The End of everything."

He coughed up blood.

"I do not have much time. My body is breaking down. Everything from the timeline I am from is being dissolved from within, as if I never existed. That was the price of me traveling here. The universe I am from is entering total entropic state. That was how much power I used to reached into this continuum."

Sriganesh gripped the shoulders of his older self. His mouth agape. What he talking about was impossible!

"How did you even-"

"No time to explain!"

The Older Sriganesh looked him in the eye.

"Stop Vairocana. Seek beneath the Vatican. It is buried there."

"What is?"

An ironic chuckle.

" _Shakti._ What we sought for innumerable kalpa."

He became serious again and his breathing seemed to hyperventilate.

"L-listen Sriganesh. The Bodhisattva Supreme is not to be trusted. The other Sriganesh only realized that in the last timeline. And neither is Mara. We're nothing before the _limitless energy_."

And then he was gone.

Sriganesh pinched himself.

 _Did I hallucinate that. Or was that a dream?_

 **Timeline C**

 **Present Time**

Sriganesh hurled himself into another space and time even as the entire universe was burned away.

 **Timeline D**

 **Present Time**

Sriganesh hurled himself into another space and time even as the entire universe was burned away.

 **Timeline E**

 **Present Time**

Sriganesh hurled himself into another space and time even as the entire universe was burned away.

 **Timeline F**

 **Present Time**

Sriganesh hurled himself into another space and time even as the entire universe was burned away.

 **Timeline G**

 **Present Time**

Sriganesh hurled himself into another space and time even as the entire universe was burned away.

 **Timeline H**

 **Present Time**

Sriganesh hurled himself into another space and time even as the entire universe was burned away.

 **Timeline I**

 **Present Time**

Sriganesh hurled himself into another space and time even as the entire universe was burned away.

 **Timeline J**

 **Present Time**

Sriganesh hurled himself into another space and time even as the entire universe was burned away.

 **Timeline ?**

 **1 Week Ago**

"Sriganesh!"

Sriganesh was woken up from his sleep in the middle of the night. He opened his eyes and saw his own face. The other him was scarred and his left eye was gone.

"Sriganesh. Go grab Dennis. We haven't got time to lose."

"What...who are you?"

"I am you! Now shut up and move!"

The other him pulled him up.

"We need to meet my counterpart in this Universe."

Sriganesh frowned.

"Wait, I thought you were me. Future me?"

"Alternate you actually. But no, I was talking about Mara."

"What."

"It's too hard to explain, suffice to say, I am being possessed by a Demon who _really_ needs to talk to his counterpart in this timeline. _As soon as possible._ Mara is preventing my body from outright collapsing back into the quantum foam, but I don't have long."

He walked out of the door like a madman, leaving behind his counterpart blinking in shock and still in his underwear.


	4. The Creator

**3.0**

 _ **O Sariputra, Form does not differ from Emptiness**_

 _ **And Emptiness does not differ from Form.**_

 _ **Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form.**_

 _ **The same is true for Feelings,**_

 _ **Perceptions, Volitions and Consciousness.**_

 _ **\- The Heart Sutra, Verse 2**_

[MEDIA=youtube]QUzzivYjvRA[/MEDIA] 

**2011 Mare Serenitatis, Moon**

The Eight Legions stood waiting carefully, protecting _Shamballa_ from all invaders that would seek to do it harm. He gazed up upon _Jambudvipa_ , the eddies of water and cloud painting a blue orb of living life in the darkness of space.

Indra-Sakra, the duly elected 10th Supreme Commander of the _Trayastrimsa Federation_ gazed dispassionately over the unmoving ranks of Devas that stood, fully armoured and armed, waiting for the orders to move out.

The Silver City of Shamballa was a sacred place, the heart of the Bodhisattva Supreme's secret sanctuary. Powerful _Astras_ were aimed upon the Planet Earth above, ready to rain down mass destruction upon the mortals should they dare rebel.

A mighty horn blew and the sound reverberated across the lunar landscape despite the lack of air upon the Moon's surface. Inda-Sakra stiffened in surprise. He turned to his charioteer who stood ready at the consoles.

"Matali, where is that alarm coming from?"

In the thousand years since Shamballa was established upon the Earth's sole satellite, the horn has never sounded. There was literally nothing on this Earth that had required the intervention of the Eight Legions except some behind the scenes action in the USSR and the quick extermination of a couple of parallel Earths that were too technologically advanced for the Bodhisattva's comfort.

The thin and lanky Matali looked over to Indra with a frown as he examined the origination of the alarm. He pressed several hard light buttons and examined a graph.

"My Lord, it would appear that Tibet itself has been invaded by an autonomous mechanized army. Origin unknown, however, central intelligence indicate that this style of technology is known amongst the repertoire of the _Dragon King of the Northern Sea_."

Indra-sakra blinked his large black eyes in surprise and replied somewhat incredulously, "Impossible, that Shard was sealed for this Yuga."

Matali suddenly stood up from the Charioteer's seat.

"My lord! Nuclear warheads headed our way!"

"What!"

In the dark of space, Indra-sakra's clairvoyance saw the sleek missiles breaking from orbit and headed towards the Moon at hypervelocity.

"ETA 10 minutes!"

Indra-sakra focused inwards and drew forth his innate communication power that he shared with all of the Devas and the rest of the Legions.

 **[All legionnaires, assemble! Tibet and now Shamballa itself is under threat by forces unknown. Prepare to restore order at all costs.]**

He turned back to Matali.

"Try to contact the Bodhisattva Supreme. I want to know what's happening."

Matali toggled a few icons. And frowned.

"Nothing. Something is blocking our signal."

"Shit."

Indra turned back and watched as the Eight Legions began to assemble. The Devic Army remained where they were, but now the other beings were coming into the yard and assembling.

First were the rest of the Devic forces. Lines upon lines of celestial soldiers assembling together with their brethrens already standing guard near Indra's Chariot.

One of the Devas slammed his spear into the ground and roared.

"First Legion, Devas, ready!"

The slithering serpent people came next, the minor dragons that formed the the second legion filing into the airspace above the Moon, flying around in circular patterns. They were made from the DNA of ancient dinosaurs, resurrected in the modern age and granted cosmic powers. One of the Elder Dragons roared, "Second Legion, Nagas, ready!"

The Yakshas came next, the elvin like dryads armed in wooden armour and decorated in vines and leaves took up rank in the city's central garden where they tended to the vegetation of the silver city.

"Third Legion, Yakshas, ready!"

The dancing and twirling form of the Gandharva, the gods of music, medicine, children came next, circling the borders of Shamballa, keeping a steady eye out for enemies so they could alert the rest of their forces. Their music filled Inda-sakra with confidence.

"Fourth Legion, Gandharva, ready!"

The Asuras came next and Indra-sakra scowled slightly. They formed the penal legions- loyal servants of the Bodhisattva Supreme who had failed the cause in some way in their former life. They were reborn as Asuras, a lower kind of Deva that was powerful, but not given any commanding positions. Their women were beautiful though, Indra's queen was of Asura stock.

"Fifth Legion, Asuras, ready!"

Joining the Nagas in the sky were the Garudas, the celestial bird of prey that were fierce rivals with the dragon-folk. They made their nest out in the asteroid field and strip-mine the space rocks for precious metals that the Devas forge into mighty weapons and Vimanas.

"Sixth Legion, Garudas, ready!"

The Kimnara, the celestial musicians and dancers, their lithe human form at contrast with their horse head. They joined with their Gandharva counterparts as music filled the air- despite there being no air. One of their mystical powers.

"Seventh Legion, Kimnara, ready!"

The third race of celestial musicians, the Mahoraga joined up shortly thereafter. Their serpentine forms take after the Naga, but they were more humanoid than their draconic cousins.

"Eighth Legion, Mahoraga, ready!"

Indra-Sakra took pride in the rapid assembly of the Nine-Thousand members of the Eight Legions, 1125 members per Legion. He knew that they were all armed with mighty weapons and were equipped with the power to destroy industrialized civilizations, even space faring ones.

Indra-Sakra summoned his mighty Varjya, his iron thunderbolt weapon and aimed it at the incoming warheads.

"These mortals dare raise their hands against their gods! In the name of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas of the Ten-Direction, we shall show them their folly!"

He fired a shearing beam of light that vapourized the nearest warhead.

"All Legions, move out!"

With a mighty roar, those that could fly lifted off and flew towards the Earth above. The rest began to file into large Carrier-type Vimanas.

Indra turned to Matali.

"Matali, launch when ready."

"Aye ay, my Lord."

The faithful Charioteer examined the complex equations and numbers necessary to project a trajectory to Tibet. The Skyscraper Sized Vimana that was Indra's Chariot began to lift off from the ground, it's anti-gravity drives made the task effortless.

In moments it was halfway to the Planet Earth. Dragons and Garudas flew next to them, traveling by more esoteric means through the ether.

As they neared the planet, Indra began to pick up panicked broadcasts from the Shards of the various Enlightened Ones defending Tibet against the mechanical army of the Dragon King.

And then a mass of luminous eyeballs and tentacles and crystal wings cut through his Chariot with a flaming chakram, shearing the palace in half. Indra screamed as the front half of his vehicle crashed back onto the Lunar surface, but the latter half thankfully continued to fly- the bridge ensconced there and was safe. Alarms began to ring all throughout the ship.

"Matali, status!"

"Hull damage is too severe. We need to evacuate before the fusion chambers combust."

Indra-Sakra looked up at the eldritch horror that that began to pulverize Devas that tried to fight it.

"What is that monster?"

The Eyeballs- all nineteen of them, Indra counted- locked onto him. And it spoke in his mind, through the same channels he used to broadcast orders and tactical information to his forces.

 **[Indra-sakra. Or should I say, Jacob? Your reign is at an end.]**

Indra frowned at the mention of his former identity.

 **[What are you, monster? I was elected by the Devas to lead them. You shall not find me a weak opponent.]**

The being laughed telepathically.

 **[In my former form, it was I who judged that you deserved rebirth as a Deva- I know you well. I was Yama. Now I am Maalik, the Angel of Hell. Fear me.]**

The Moon quake as gods wailed in horror at the impossible being in their midsts.

The war for the Solar System begins as throughout the Sol System, the other non-human beings watched in fascinated horror as a former Dharmapala slaughtered the gods.

 **2011 Lhasa, Tibet**

Annette Mara stepped out of an alley in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. She looked up and spotted the flying draconic machines of Dragon. Several temples were on fire and smoke and plume were rising high into the sky.

"Keep them busy, Dragon. I will assassinate the Bodhisattva."

King Mara's form stood next to Annette and his eyes blazed with promised vengeance.

"Soon Mara, soon."

She began to walk carefully alongside the panicking monks and civilians as they took shelter under the bombardment of the Dragon suits.

After about ten minutes of dodging patrolling monks, she managed to enter the central temple complexes. One of these temples hosted the entryway to the Bodhisattva's sanctum.

King Mara pointed up at the sky.

"Look at that Annette. It's dear Jacob."

Annette looked up at a falling star, fire burning alongside the steel hulls of the colossal Vimana as it crashed into the side of the Himalayas distances away.

Annette recognized that spaceship anywhere.

"Indra-Sakra. The King of the Thirty-Three."

King Mara nodded.

"Just so. He was one of my temporary hosts. After his death, the Bodhisattva Supreme somehow saw fit to be have him reincarnated as a Deva, supposedly for the virtue of resisting me- somehow he was elected into the Indra position."

He turned and walked into the temple.

"Come Annette, we have a Saint to kill."

 **2011 Jovian Moon System**

It had been a month since they last heard from Shamballa and Devas were growing concerned.

When the Bodhisattva Supreme first arrived, she cloned the minds of those most useful for her purposes and made them into different races and set them upon the stars.

Only humans could attain enlightenment and only they could receive shards of their own with their own past life lineages. The Eight Specialized Shards for the Legions were part of a separate network, reserved to be shared amongst the Legionaries, these network was more akin to a supercomputer and the Legionaries were given access to the abilities that the computer could utilize. These powers were granted through mantras (some of these mantras were even taught to some humans on Earth, allowing them the power of the gods in certain condition, leading to the rise of numerous magical traditions- but those were all stamped out after the Ending Dharma Age had begun).

As for the rest of the denizens of the solar systems, they were devoid of power aside from what their biology and technology grants them. Weaker than the legions, these other races could watch from their Jovian space-stations and Martian colonies as their empire began to crumble.

The Thirty-Three Colonies of the Devas found themselves rioting as citizens panicked over the conflicting news that were being spread from _Jambudvipa_.

They had all watched as the emergency broadcast show Indra-Sakra's chariot beset by a being of myth and legend- an Angel of a heretical religion. There was mighty battle as the Legions fought with valour against the Angel.

And then the transmitters based on Shamballa was destroyed along with the solar wireless network.

Rumours abound and gods were confused. Some of these rumours were that:

Tibet was destroyed.

Tibet was not destroyed.

The Bodhisattva Supreme is dead.

The Bodhisattva Supreme is not dead.

Shamballa has fallen.

Shamballa is besieged.

Shamballa triumphs.

The fastest scout Vimanas would still take days to reach Earth's moon. There was no time to investigate truly, what was happening.

The Kings of the space-stations and space colonies urged their respective citizens to be safe as they coordinated their resources and militias to maintain the peace. However, many of them were also maneuvering themselves politically to take advantage of the situation.

The Thirty-Two Kings of the _Trayastrimsa Federation_ all vied with each other each election cycle to be voted as the New Indra-Sakra, the ruler of the Thirty-Third Colony of Shamballa, which also doubles as the capital of the Thirty Three Devic States.

As such it was no surprise at all when King Gopti-Thule of Station Fourteen annexed the neighbouring colony of Europa. The two city states have long been economic rivals. Station Fourteen informally blockades incoming trade by taxing any Vimana that wants to land on Europa, which is how they make their money, much to the resentment of Europa. The Europans as a result, have an array of Astras aimed at Station Fourteen at any given moment. Many times have war threatened to break out, but Indra-Sakra kept them inline.

Indra-Sakra wasn't in any position to object to the sudden seizure of Europa by Station Fourteen. Within the first five minutes before any Europan Devas really knew what was happening, King Rama of Europa was dead and the _Astras_ on Europa were disabled.

Other Kings objected, but there was nothing they could do, they were all too busy dealing with their respective rioting citizens.

On the local intranet of Station Two, a Devi suggested that they invade the Earth, but this idea was immediately shot down as being foolhardy.

And then the Asuras rebelled.

 **2011 Himalayas, near Lhasa**

Indra-Sakra spat out a mouthful of snow as he crawled out of the wreckage of his Chariot.

"Matali!"

There was no answer and Indra became worried. He cast out his broadcasting power and try to pinpoint Matali's location.

Instead, he received the precise location of every Shard-connected in Tibet. And...a familiar ping that should not belong within the network, but he recognized right away.

He hissed.

" _Mara._ "

Hefting his Varjya, Indra-Sakra began to trek towards Lhasa. His superhuman body and superior circulatory system saw him dashing above the surface of the snow at great speeds as he scaled down the mountain.

Whatever Mara wanted in Tibet cannot be good. He was most likely after the Bodhisattva and Jacob cannot let that happen.

 **2011, Vatican City**

Taylor Mara walked out of an alley in Rome and saw that the streets were lined with people armed with baseball bats and makeshift weapons. The entire city was ready and willing to go to war. Doubtlessly they have already heard of what happened in Brockton Bay and Europe.

Vairocana still stood there, finger outstretched, but he was not attacking.

 _What is going on?_

King Mara shrugged next to her.

"It does not matter. Our objective is to retrieve the _object_ hidden beneath the vatican. Your mother and my parallel self will keep the Bodhisattva distracted. Maalik is keeping the Eight Legions occupied."

Taylor asked the question she had been wondering since day one.

"Just what is this object that you are seeking?"

"Something that was stolen from me by the Bodhisattva Supreme. It's buried in a pocket dimension linked to the Vatican. I couldn't exactly dig it out without every Dharmapala flocking after me, but they're all headed back to Tibet now that the Capital is under assault."

He grinned.

"All is going according to plan."

Taylor nodded and took another step forward, but then suddenly threw herself back as figure crashed into the pavement in front of her, splintering concrete in all directions much to the shock of the nearby people.

"A heathen! Kill him!"

The mob raised their makeshift weapons and charged the monk, but he swung his arm once and the mob were knocked back.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

A man unloaded his shotgun rounds into the monk, but the bullets crunched up when they came into contact with the man's skin.

Taylor gaped.

"There are no Tulkus that strong! Who is he?"

The monk turned to her and Taylor noticed how young he was for the first time. He bowed.

"I am Grandmaster Chekhov of the Temple of Infinite Time."

He smiled.

"You may call me Dennis, Miss Hebert. My friend sends me to prevent you from making a grave mistake."

Taylor hissed.

"And what mistake would that be?"

"The _Eternity Matrix_ no longer accepts you, Mara."

King Mara flinched. Taylor looked at him in confusion.

"What? What's the Eternity Matrix?"

Dennis stared grimly at Taylor.

"Mara, I know you can hear me."

King Mara made Taylor speak.

"How did you know that name? How do you know of the Eternity Matrix?"

"You told me."

"How!?"

"Another you. Another time."

Taylor Mara began to twist the sense-perception of Dennis, but the man shrugged off the neurological changes and returned his mindstate back to the way it was before.

"Time is the Lord of all changes. I _am time_ , you cannot change me."

He punched Taylor in the face and launched her back towards a chapel. The girl smashed through the wall, several pews, through the altar and finally buried her back into a pillar. The chapel groaned and began to collapse around her.

He grabbed Taylor by the throat and lifted her.

"Few of the Enlightened ever developed truly physical powers such as what I am displaying. The energy costs are too high and distracts from our research. Even you Mara, relies heavily on the Shards of your host which are all designed for thinking and abstractions. You cannot beat me in a force of arms."

King Mara in Taylor's body merely nodded.

"What do you want, monk? Explain to me what you meant before!"

"Another you from another multiverse cluster traveled here to warn you against using the Matrix. This is his message. He say: It is not as you remembered- you seek to use it for revenge, but that would only bring the swift destruction of the universe upon us. In a single moment, you would kill more people than the Bodhisattva Supreme has ever accomplished in her lifetime."

King Mara was silent, then he spoke again, quieter this time.

"Where is he? My alternate counterpart?"

"Dead. An alternate Grandmaster Sriganesh was his host from another continuum. He lived at most only a couple of hours- but was wiped along with all data from the other timeline when that universe burned itself out. He managed to leave behind instructions on how to _prevent you_ from destroying the multiverse."

Dennis then gritted his teeth and brought Taylor's face up close to his own.

"So here's what we're going to do. We're going to find the Matrix, you're _not_ going to use it for revenge- and from what I've been told, your stupid plan was more like glorified suicide. And we're going to take the Matrix and put it somewhere far far away from you. Okay?"

"No."

King Mara in Taylor's body flung themselves out of Dennis grasp as he transformed into a black mist and materialized several feet away. She disconnected from the Shard of Sophia and ran away as Dennis cursed and chased after her.

The chase continued for awhile, as frantic pedestrians flung themselves out of the way.

As Taylor jumped down a shaft that lead into an abandoned catacomb below the Vatican, there was a burst of light as Vairocana finally began to attack.

Dennis cursed as the Dharmapala unfroze and begin to strike at Vatican City. The explosion vaporized his surroundings, but Dennis remained unharmed. His kasaya burned away leaving him nude amidst scorched rubble, but not a single hair on his head was burnt.

 _Shit, I ran out of time!_

He pressed a comm bead in his ears.

"Sriganesh, she got away and even after explaining everything, _this_ King Mara is still a stubborn mule."

There was muffled cursing from the other line.

"I guess it's only after dooming all of creation does Mara began to doubt himself. The fool."

"What should I do? Should I freeze Vairocana again?"

"Negative, focus on getting to her! Vairocana conveniently provides a distraction. I will be out of contact for a few seconds. I need to keep the time loop stable. I need to travel to the past and tell your past self about what he needs to say. When you catch up to her, tell me her location so I can be there waiting for her and we can ambush her together."

"Understood. Stay safe Grandmaster."

Dennis began to run after Taylor, ripping apart the rubble that buried the shaft entrance. He jumped down without hesitation.

Grandmaster Sriganesh glanced down at the rapidly disintegrating body of his alternate self and nodded to himself.

"In the worst case scenario, I become you. But for now, let's see what we can do."

He stepped into the past.

And met Dennis.

"Dennis. Here's what you need to say to Mara."

 **2011 Lhasa, Tibet**

Annette kicked aside the burnt corpse of the Dalai Lama. The battle had been brief but fierce, however it turns out Tibet's political leader wasn't immune to an AK-47 with enhanced ammunition.

Dropping the spent firearm, she unzipped her bag and withdrew a katana and an Uzi. Making sure her weapon was fully loaded, she marched into the Bodhisattva's Inner Sanctum.

A young woman in a kasaya sat upon the small cliff, emitting silver light. King Mara looked at her in confusion, mouths agape. Annette was equally confused.

"You...you're not the Bodhisattva Supreme."

The young woman smiled and giggled.

"Greetings Mara. I've waited years for you."

Mara was not amused and Annette felt his blood boiling with his rage.

"Where is the Bodhisattva!?"

The woman giggled again.

"Silly demon. The Bodhisattva Supreme committed suicide decades ago."

"No...:"

"Yes...congratulations. You did it. You drove her mad with despair and tiredness. Her continual self-lobotomization did some amazing things to her psyche. She hatched this crazy idea to end it all."

The woman gestured to the ceiling of the cave.

"For Dharma's sake, she created an entire solar colony based on Buddhists cosmological accounts of the Small-World-System for _no reason_ other than because it fit the theme. She was mad and insane. I didn't really get it myself until years after I've taken control of her core Shard Network, which she left me to keep up the masquerade. It's all part of an elaborate final _fuck you_ \- to you specifically of course."

King Mara screamed in rage. Annette's nose began to bleed as she screamed in rage as well, the psychic feedback made her clench her fist in hatred.

"My revenge…all those kalpas...all of that planning…"

The woman floated gently down and stroked Mara's cheek.

"We all have a part to play. Revenge benefits no one Mara. Let go of your hatred. Join me. We can unite the Planet."

Mara plunged his arm through her guts. The woman giggled.

"That's how she presumed you would act. I am sure she would find your impotent rage to be delicious. So what now Mara? What are going to do? The entire system the Bodhisattva had built up is going to collapse as soon as I am dead. Shards will connect randomly. The Solar-Colonies of the Devas will be starved of resources and may even invade the Earth to get what they want. The Dharmapalas will go out of control."

She leaned in and whispered in Annette's ear.

"And the best part is...it doesn't matter. Because what matters to you Mara….is that you were denied your vengeance."

Ciara smiled as Mara grabbed her neck and began to strangle her.

She continued smiling as she finally died.

"What have you done!?"

Annette looked up and stared at the armoured form of the golden king, Indra-Sakra. He stood there looking like a particularly tall Roswell-Grey. His large black eyes were open in shock.

Mara's rage subsided and he- in Annette's body- sank to his knees despair.

"I have no purpose."

Indra ran over to the fallen form of the Bodhisattva Supreme.

"You murdered the Bodhisattva."

Mara looked up at one of his temporary hosts, someone he had possessed to kill someone else and then he set himself on fire and evacuated. Jacob, somehow, miraculously survived.

"It's all for nothing, Jacob. She's not the Bodhisattva Supreme. Just a convincing body double."

Jacob gritted his teeth.

"Where's the Bodhisattva then?"

"Dead. She committed suicide decades ago."

King Mara giggled.

"It's all for fucking nothing."

That only made Indra more angry. He grabbed Annette by the shoulders and screamed at her.

"Fuck you Mara. You and your goddamned revenge. You and your body-jacking of innocent people. All of those deaths and lives ruined- mine included- and for what!? Don't you dare try to feel sorry for yourself! The entire economic-political structure of the solar system is going to be fucked!"

King Mara giggled.

 **2011 Vatican City**

Taylor kicked open the ark containing the Matrix. Space was opened like a Lotus before her, unveiling the hidden treasure that Mara's greater self once carried as part of her duty.

She stared upon infinity.

Mara's eyes were glued to the sphere of light.

"Yes...that is it. The Eternity Matrix."

"What is it?"

"When I was alive, before I became this shadow of a being you called Mara, I was of the race of the Bodhisattva. A race of worms that sought the solution to entropy. But I found something else instead. I found _religion_. I found a being greater than myself and was tasked by that being with being it's carrier. The Matrix is part of the cosmic process, it is a piece of creation of itself, a law of physics trapped within a delicate system of space-time. When the big bang occurred, the God within the Matrix was separated from the other forces and guided away from the beginning of time. In this way, the Universe as we know it _expands_ and things do not collapse back into the void."

Taylor's mouth was hanging open.

"What."

"Hard to believe is it not? However, the Universe _wants_ to return to the void. It is the eternal chase- the _darkness_ spreads from the Big Bang, seeking to reclaim a missing piece of itself. Once it does- the cosmos will annihilate itself. The Bodhisattva Supreme and her dead counterpart do not know the true depth of their folly. In murdering me, they may have also doomed the cosmos."

"So what are you going to do? Escape from Earth and continue the journey?"

Mara shook his head.

"I am already dead. But that is still _my_ matrix. I will use it to avenge myself."

Mara- using Taylor's hands- gripped the shining object and held it up to his face. And then he squeezed.

"When I break it, my _God_ will come and annihilate the Bodhisattva."

Taylor frowned.

"Wait, what Dennis said-"

"Tricks and lies. My God will not destroy the universe."

Mara forced Taylor to undo the locks of space and time.

"Wait, Mara, stop-"

"I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!"

Taylor cried in agony as Mara forcibly possessed her body entirely and began to tear apart the Matrix.

"Mara, stop!" a man shouted. Dennis stepped out of the shadows.

King Mara laughed.

"You goddamned parasites will all burn. How I was once a member of your pathetic race I'll never know. But my God is Eternal Limitless Energy and it will punish you all!"

"Mara. Enough," Master Sriganesh stepped out of a portal, "That is not the way. You will come to regret this. The other you already did. How many muti-verse clusters must you inadvertently annihilate with Shakti's energy before you realize this?"

Mara raised the Matrix high up and then stopped, a look of shock upon his- Taylor's- face.

"No...it can't be."

King Mara giggled and sank to his knees.

"It can't be. She can't be dead already."

With a scream of rage he tore the Matrix apart.

Sriganesh looked sad as he tore open a portal into another continuum entirely, the equation that he was taught from his other self annihilating Tibet in an instant. An impossible equation, one requiring infinite energy. Energy that was now provided in abundance, leaking from the cracked Matrix.

And then he was hurling into another space and another time.

In that final moment before all matter in Tibet was transmuted into energy to form Sriganesh's portal, King Mara looked at Dennis and smiled.

And then God came.

 **2011 Brockton Bay**

It was crowded at the docks. Hundreds of thousands flooded the docks. The Dharmic faithful were far away, clustered in the other half of the city that was under their control.

"I crown you Pope."

Jophiel declared solemnly and placed a burning crown of white fire upon the head of Daniel Hebert.

"I name you the shepherd of the end. I name you anointed. I name thee the gatekeeper of the next world."

She paused and looked to the horizon, out of the bay towards the Atlantic.

"It is a good day to die."

The congregation of the faithful prayed as the horizon was filled with white light. The wave of eternal energy swept across the globe towards them.

 **2011, Sol System**

The Devas in space paused as they saw the spectacle unfold before their superior visions.

 **No Time**

In another time and another place, Taylor did not realize what was happening until it was too late.

In this time and this place, she seized control from Mara and plunge her hand into the gaping hole in creation from whence the energy was leaking through. Mara screamed in pain as the energy instantaneously understood everything there was to know about him and the shard he was connected to.

She saw the universe before the big bang. All of them. Inflationary bubbles after bubbles, the roiling tumbling sea of chaos and probability where entire multiversal clusters blossom into existences like sakura in the spring.

She saw. She understood. And the entity within, the pure energy which was _intelligent-_ because how could it not be? How could that which allows for complex data to develop itself not be sentient?

But sentient was not the world. It was simply omniscient. It just knows. It just knows everything because everything was a part of itself. And in that moment, Taylor was able to plead her case.

The energy, separate as it was from the whole understood that it was not yet time to destroy, but the amounts of energy leaking through cannot be stopped.

So it channeled itself into Taylor and extended outwards into a singularity. And from the other end, an inflationary bubble blossomed into existence, branching off of this one.

This was the sprouting of a true alternate universe, one beyond the simple splicing that occurs when the Bodhisattva Supreme splintered space-time. This roiling mass of energy exploded into a _Big Bang._

Taylor screamed as she was annihilated.

And then she _is._

[MEDIA=youtube]see_TY5ANEc[/MEDIA]

A/N: Epilogue coming up next. Obviously, I want to move onto greener pastures, so I am trying to conclude this project. There are multiple ways the story could have ended, but since this is an exploration of religion and I am religious, I decided to end with a bang and with Spinoza's God, which I believe, is what God really is. God and Reality are not separate. The multiverse _must_ exist and so it does, because eternal inflation demands that we exist, but at the same, all matter and all energy came from the one indivisible substance (if we can call such a concept a substance) that is wholly other and yet not. We are data compiled in a certain way, but never forget that before we were this way, we were _other_.

Now for some theology: Trayastrimsa, the Heaven of the Thirty-Three in Buddhism is the 2nd Heaven of Desire. It contains Thirty-Three distinct kingdoms within the same plane, each ruled over by a King. Their high King is Indra-Sakra which is a position that changes hands as different devas take up the office. Indra-Sakra also commands the loyalty of the Four Great Kings who rules the plane below the 33. The Four Great Kings in turn commands the loyalty of various races of non-human origins. From all races are drawn membership in the Eight Legions, which functions as a religious army that defends the Dharma of the Buddha and his followers from threats. Jambudvipa is the Southern Continent or Ordinary Terrestrial World of ordinary humans which is situated south of Mount Sumeru, the Yggdrasil of the local small-world system. The general consensus is that it refers to Planet Earth. There are three other continents with humans on it, but they're not like normal humans, but neither are they devas (even though humans are arguably a type of deva).


	5. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

 _ **Messiah Li, an incarnation of Lord Lao of the Celestial Masters, will inaugurate a great cataclysm that will destroy these sinners, and only the devout faithful, the zhongmin will survive and enjoy the era of Great Peace under the rule of the Messiah.**_

 _ **\- The Divine Incantations Scripture (4th - 5th century CE)**_

* * *

 **2025 Wudangshan, China**

It did not end with a whimper. Nor a bang, but Daniel Hebert's foot crunching on a graveled path. He descended from his personal Vimana that flew across the sea to the famed Wudangshan Temple Complex. Following closely behind was Annette, hand twitching now that she no longer had a weapon and 'Satan' was no longer possessing her.

The ancient Wudang mountain range was famous the world over. It was the place of cultivation of such auspicious personages like Zhang Shangfang, the Sage who transformed Taoist Yoga into Tai Chi Fist- the world famous martial art it is today.

The Purple Cloud Temple loomed ahead, a testament to the great history of the Taoist practitioners of this land. That it survived both the Communist uprising and the _Dharmayuddha_ is merely prestige upon it's glory. Well, Daniel concede that it was rebuilt in 1413 and extended in 1803-20, but _everything_ needed maintenance in this world.

"Your eminence, this way."

The Taoist Monk- formally called a "Qiandao"- guided him and his retinue towards up the temple. They were here for a historic meeting the like of which the world has never seen.

Awaiting him was Elder Zhang Yu, the head of the Purple Cloud Temple and the elected master to represent all of the major branches of Taoism.

Standing next to him was Master Cheng Yen, the Buddhist representative.

The Imam, Muhammad Jafri was representing what was left of Islam.

Rabbi Bezalel stood next to him, representing Judaism.

Sri Vedanta Chatterjee was representing Hinduism- or more specifically, the syncretic version of it that was left behind in the wake of the now defunct Dharmic Authorities. Fortunately Hinduism was always very flexible and could take a hit and keep rolling, welcoming what made sense and quietly throwing away what did not.

The alien looking Indra-Sakra also stood there, his greater height looming over them all. The Asura rebellion had been brutally put down when Indra returned to space and now he seeks a place at the table.

And finally, a Dragon Suit, representing the Canadian God herself as a major world power. She was the arbitrator and recorder for this historic council.

They were here for peace certainly, but more than that. They were here to do something that had never be done before.

To unify all religions and by extension, all nations of the world- regardless of race, creed or differences. They would celebrate their similarities and be challenged by their diversity in all of it's forms. But they never wanted to be splintered and broken again. Not like before.

The esteemed personages sat in a circle and waited. None dared speak first.

So Annette did.

"I was the host of Mara for the longest time."

Everyone turned to look at her.

"I was his host. I can't say that he was a nice being, he was driven by revenge to the very end. But he may have inadvertently saved countless worlds from the depredation of the false-gods."

She paused.

"I want it to mean something. The suffering he went through. The people he- and I- have killed. And…"

She gripped Daniel's hands and gave him a sad smile.

"I want my daughter's sacrifice to have meant something..

She locked eyes with each member of the delegation, even Dragon's ocular lenses and spoke with determination.

"Nobody leaves until we _make_ this work. God knows we've fucked up enough times already."

So they got to work.

There was debates- so so much debate.

There was cosmological models being expounded. What they knew to be theological truths versus philosophical deductions- or was it the other way around?

Empirical evidences were considered- certainly no one believe that the Earth was literally 6000 years old. Some of the old American Churches that Daniel spoke of wanted him to push forth a creationist agenda, but Daniel shot that down so fast it burned.

 _Fortunately, I am the representative for all of Christianity._

Cheng Yen argued that the oscillating Universe theory matches Buddhism. Sri Vedanta argued for Eternal Inflation. The Taoist was undecided and concluded that perhaps they were both looking at the same problem from different angles.

Rabbi Bezalel slammed his fist on the table.

"Science is all well and good, but empirical evidence also applies to the experiential reality. What do we all know are experiential truths that everybody experience?"

Cheng Yen nodded her head in agreement.

"The Rabbi is right. The Buddha taught…"

And so it went. Theories and dharmas and secret teachings. All things were laid bare. Nothing was kept back.

Slowly, things began to take shape. Make sense. A coherent and consistent system that didn't precisely explain how everything works together, but certainly gives the _space_ necessary for everything to co-exist. It was a beautiful fractal pattern, a true magnum opus.

Nothing was written down- Dragon simply take everything that was said and refined it into a coherent whole. Nothing needed to be quoted fully. One only had to allude to a specific scripture or passage and Dragon will have lifted it off of the internet or an archive.

Occasionally, someone would produce a tattered tome, a secret copy of a copy of an ancient text. Dragon would dutifully scan these as the discussion continued unabated.

They did this day in and day out for an entire month.

They began and ended each day with prayer and worship- to each of their respective deities and beliefs and then they come together and as one they worshipped the Truth. Simply the Truth. The one thing they all believed in.

Finally the Ultimate Scripture was compiled.

A database of the world's known truths, both scientific, philosophical and religious.

It demand from the people a will to live and a desire to serve the truth.

"What should we call this truth?"

Elder Zhang Yu stroked his white beard and cheekily replied.

"Let's just call it the Tao. The _Way_ is after all, in every religion. Logos. The Straight Path. Dharma. Ma'at."

Daniel thought it was appropriate. He remembered reading C.S. Lewis' _The Abolition of Man_ in College finding it when he was looking for the Narnia series at the library. He could remember his passage regarding what he felt was the Tao: _The Tao, which others may call Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes, is not one among a series of possible systems of value. It is the sole source of all value judgments. If it is rejected, all value is rejected. If any value is retained, it is retained. The effort to refute it and raise a new system of value in its place is self-contradictory. There has never been, and never will be, a radically new judgment of value in the history of the world. What purport to be new systems or…ideologies…all consist of fragments from the Tao itself, arbitrarily wrenched from their context in the whole and then swollen to madness in their isolation, yet still owing to the Tao and to it alone such validity as they posses._

It was sometimes difficult to imagine that C.S. Lewis was a devout Christian scholar. The man was brilliant.

Annette perked up at the mention of the name, "Ma'at? The Egyptian goddess of Justice?"

The Elder chuckled, "Hardly a goddess. A force beyond the gods themselves, a cosmic order that demands a certain way of life."

"Strange for a Taoist to be quoting a dead goddess."

"I made every man like his fellow….I have given bread to the hungry and clothed the naked...I was a husband to the widow and father to the orphan. Do you know who said that? Ma'at did. She is cosmic law and justice, she is the mover of all natural bodies and laws and she is the embodiment of righteousness. She is Dharma- the Dao actually- personified."

"Interesting."

Muhammad spoke up then, "Certainly, every religion's concept of God or the Way is similar- identical in fact. Our eschatology are even similar- all of us here have a prophecy of the end times, albeit the interpretation varies."

Daniel stood up, "Is it truly different though? The Great Unity as proposed by Confucius, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth as promised by Jesus, the Pureland of Maitreya, are these not Heaven _on_ Earth, here in the living world? Is it simply not the future? We all want a prosperous future for mankind, bound in righteousness and nobility. Could it be that is all that God truly want from us? To live the way?"

Elder Zhang Yu nodded, "Now you're getting it."

The Jew raised an arm, "Judaism believes the same. Olam ha-ba is the _world to come_ and in some circles is regarded as the Garden of Eden come again- which any scholar will tell you is a state of being more than a place."

They quickly descended into a rapid conversation regarding the End Times.

"Has the End Time already come?"

They turned to look Indra, who had thus far remained silent and simply accepted those who were greater in the fields of theology- and human interests- to debate the fine details.

Indra continued, "When Taylor sacrificed herself to save the cosmos, did she not also brought low the enemy and Mara, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for her inner evil-"

Annette bristled at the accusation, but Daniel grabbed her hand. That seemed to always calm her down.

"- That she overcame. She overcame the inner demon within herself- for let us not forget that Mara is a simulation reflecting herself- and she _won_ and saved the Universe. Which brings me to my next point."

He stood up and called upon a holographic display that began to scroll to several lines of text.

"We know that according to the testimony of Master Chekov and Master Sriganesh, Mara was once a priest of a truly god-like being, an eternal energy source which he claimed was part of the cosmic process. How can such a power be stopped by a mere teenage girl? Ask yourselves if sticking your arm into a leaking vessel of a piece of eternity itself can do anything to stop it?"

Indra sat back down and looked at each of them, "I _personally_ believe that Taylor is the Messiah and that she ushered in the end time. It is our job now to steadfastly build her kingdom and bring peace to the Solar System and _beyond_. Spreading the religious ideals of love and truth and righteousness as we were always meant to _live_. She is Li-Hong!"

"She's dead," Annette spoke with finality.

Daniel admit that he was moved. Certainly no one said that Jesus had to return bodily in the same way he left...perhaps Taylor really was the Messiah.

The Old Church would not have accepted something like this. The New Church can.

Sri Vedanta coughed, "There will be many different interpretations of what happened. And you know what?"

He raised both arms in a 'so what gesture.'

"That's fine by me. We are rich in diversity. Taylor will be a Saint. Or a Buddha. Or Jesus Reborn. Or the Kalki Avatar. It does not matter. We _know_ beyond any doubt, that she saved us, that she interceded with a being that we could only accept really is God or a part of God's power. She interceded for us and saved us- and she destroyed all false religions and false gods and overcame the devil in her own heart all at the same time. And that is enough for me to add her to my prayers."

He clasped his hands together and bowed his head to pray.

Daniel too clasped his hands together and prayed.

The rest followed suit.

A Saint for the New Era was made here in this room. But in ten-thousand years, will anyone still remember her?

 **10,971 CE, Ketuma Ecumenopolis (Heaven, Paradise, Pureland)**

"And that, child, is the story of the last vestige of the dark age. And within living memory, Paradise was achieved."

The floating woman lifted off of the ground. She was beautiful and dressed in a skintight bodysuit of deep pink.

A child floated next to her, dressed in a bodysuit of baby-blue.

"What of Taylor? What happened to her?"

"Well Ajita, from what we know of the nature of the Eternity Matrix today, Taylor is dead certainly. But why on Earth does life end in death? Do you not know-"

She spread her arms out at the lush grass blowing in the flat plain of Heaven, tall trees casted cooling shadows over the golden spires of the eternal city of Ketuma which was encircled by 84,000 satellite cities, each populated by millions of people.

Up ahead in the sky, the light of Sol casted an orange glow over the great oceans of the Earth and glinted off the metal surfaces of the great sky cities overhead.

The woman continued, "- do you know that we live in Heaven. The hereafter. The Garden of Eden. We are dead yet living. Taylor is dead yet living- she is one with God now, broken down into the indivisible substance, freed from all mental conditioning, free from all karma. She is in the other shore."

The woman turned back to the child.

"And you too, shall enter the other shore. I was there when you were born. I saw the gods- not like the devas of the solar system- but the true gods from another time and space. They themselves delivered you into our world from the far away dimension of Tushita. I saw. I know."

She touched his brow reverently.

"You will bring trillions into the path and billions will become as you are and know God truly. After you have extinguished all conditions and enter the True Void of Nirvana, as Taylor Hebert has done before you, for 60,000 years the true dharma will be taught by your disciples, followed by the Dharma-likeness for another 60,000 years as religions numbering in the millions spread your decaying teachings to every corner of the universe, sowing the seeds of enlightenment in alien races far and wide so that one day, God will send more Prophet-Buddhas to save them too."

Ajita's face scrunched up.

"I don't feel like I can do that. I don't think I can be like Taylor Hebert at all."

She hugged him and spoke softly, "I have faith in you. Pray to Taylor tonight. Let her guide you."

"But she's entered Nirvana. She is gone from all worlds and all dimensions."

"Silly boy, do you not yet know, all are one? You studied amplituhedron physics in school, you should know that nothing is beyond the bounds of the True Void. We are tiny lotuses nestled within lotuses in an infinity of lotuses."

Ajita closed his eyes and instantly realized that this was true.

The humans of the future were different. They were giants in comparison to the man of before, towering over mortals at great heights of 160 feet, long ago engineering themselves this way. Even Indra acknowledged the superiority of the human race over the devas. And in every human, an inherent grasp of the higher truths of the universe. With but a focus, Ajita's very cells can compute calculations that once took towering Shards to do, his eyes can see into all spectrums and even the quantum foam. Nothing was beyond this child's power.

No child of humanity could be denied anything. They only lived with the weakness of death- but to such learned and virtuous beings as they, death was not a weakness, but a part of their very long, millennia-long lives.

Humanity had long surpassed the false-Bodhisattvas race.

Ajita nodded his head.

He looked to the rising sun, the former gas giant known as Jupiter- the redeemed Lucifer- now a second star within the solar system. It filled him with strength and determination.

"I shall devote myself to the Path fully tomorrow."

The woman smiled.

"I am sure your parents would be proud."

"My father is the Prime Minister of the Chakravartin. He knows that religion is the greatest calling in the world. He would not object."

"Child, your Lord father knew your destiny before you were born. He saw it. We all did. It was upon the path of time and was inevitable. The whole solar system and beyond watch your progress carefully. He will be overjoyed to see destiny fulfilled."

She bowed to him. To the boy who would become a Prophet-Buddha. The Buddha named _**Maitreya**_ , who aspired to establish the Pureland upon the material world and to guide them into the great federation of Infinite Purelands in dimensions so distant and close to God it was beyond their comprehension.

And together they flew away towards the dawning of the promised hour.

The water flowed into the shore and withdrew.

The winds blew gently.

She coughed and opened her eyes, wide and innocent. She looked around her and frowned in confusion, as if seeing it for the first time.

She gazed down upon her translucent skin, glowing from within a luminous light.

Turning behind her, she saw a giant lotus flower, opened and spilling forth viscous fluid that smelt faintly familiar.

 _A womb_.

There was a glint of light in the sky and she looked up to see another luminous being descend.

The being touched her gently.

"Hello child," he spoke without sound, "Do you remember who you are?"

She frowned.

And then smiled.

"I know."

The being bowed to her. He was nice enough, but she now knew that this was not her destination. This world was close to where she needed to be. It was the wrong universe however.

She descended into a lower realm and then yet lower, and lower and lower. She shed her powers and her light as she descended, until she felt space thick with causality as she became a grosser and grosser material being.

From _Keter_ to _Malkuth_ , she felt her body form from the eternal energy of God.

And finally she stepped into a beach filled with grains of precious jewels. She was naked as a babe and she laughed and danced in the river.

She gazed in awe at the golden spires of the eternal city yonder.

A boat of white wood drifted downstream. A child sat inside and he looked at her curiously.

"Who are you?"

She felt the answer bubble forth, her soul so bright that her very thoughts align with her being. There was no time for deliberation, no doubts in her speech. She wills it and her body, mind and voice executes it.

"Thus come, thus gone. Thus come again. Free from all conditioning, I am here simply because I want to be alive and to partake of _living_."

She held out a hand.

The boy took it. The custom still exist.

"I am Ajita. Who are you?"

She smiled.

"I am Taylor."

From within her body, she withdrew the Eternity Matrix.

"It is near the end. It will happen slowly, as worlds crumble and space shrinks. This is inevitable. But as the material universe reached it's maturity and withers, so too our soul shall shine brighter. You shall guide us to that higher state as we are simultaneously freed from this world."

She passed him the Matrix and he cupped it in both hands, eyes brimming with tears.

"I thank you, Taylor Hebert, Prophet-Buddha of a bygone era."

Taylor kissed the boy on the head to give him her blessing and pushed his boat away, a burst of unknown power sending his ship careening out into the ocean- to where he needed to go. She saw it on the path.

She flapped her arms and flew into the air and then did a flip, reveling in an existence where hells and suffering cannot exist because even the youngest of children and smallest of insects was filled with love and care. Where everyone was a philosopher and a scientist, where every problem was met with a confident cry of, 'we can do it, we can solve this, we can help people.'

All of her prior suffering was worth it, to bring forth and to live in such a perfect material reflection of God.

"Now, I am going to go eat a veggie burger. I wonder if they still have that?"

They did. And she ate her 100% matter replicated veggie burger, fresh off the press.

And life was good.

[MEDIA=youtube]yRhq-yO1KN8[/MEDIA]

* * *

A/N: While I chose to use the Buddhist angle for the final scene here, I could have just as easily written about the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, Islamic Jannah or the Garden of Eden or Satya Yuga or the Confucian Great Unity. It's a matter of perspective, but the point is, nearly all religions all agree that Heaven is within the Human Realm (or in our hearts). A human paradise, achieved by human hands, guided by the love of God. Not beyond it.

Keter and Malkuth refers to the Topmost and Lowest Sephirot of the Kabbalah (The Tree of Life). For more on physics stuff, read about Amplituhedron.

For more about Maitreya and the Cities of the Future, read Buddha Pronounces the Sūtra of Maitreya Bodhisattva's Attainment of Buddhahood. For the anime version of this sutra, watch this. [MEDIA=youtube]e6E8er3XqN0[/MEDIA]

Thanks for reading everyone! Look forward to my next project! :)


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